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Enpro Inc. Improves Quality Oversight of High-Speed Carbonated Beverage Filling with HID Global
Technology Category
- Networks & Connectivity - RFID
- Sensors - RFID Readers
Applicable Industries
- Electronics
- Recycling & Waste Management
Applicable Functions
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Onsite Human Safety Management
- Visual Quality Detection
Services
- System Integration
- Testing & Certification
The Challenge
Today’s beverage companies rely on automated, high-speed filling lines that operate as a nonstop process flow, producing upwards of 2,500 items per minute per line. The slightest problem on these automated lines—such as a missing vent tube—can have a major operational impact. Enpro Inc. customers needed a way to reliably detect the presence or absence of a vent tube, eliminating the potential for halting the line –as workers manually check for vent tube problems. Notably, if a vent tube is lost or damaged during the filling process, it becomes a safety and quality issue for a beverage manufacturer and large amounts of finished packaged product has to be thrown a way as the missing vent tube is very costly to locate.
The Customer
Enpro Inc.
About The Customer
Enpro Inc. is an Illinois company that provides patented state-of-the-art traceable components and systems to reduce waste and downtime associated with the filling process in the food and beverage industry. Their customers are some of the world’s largest manufacturers in the beverage industry.
The Solution
To address the problem, Enpro Inc. partnered with the largest beverage manufacturers, as well as HID Global, and FEIG Electronics to build a Filler Vent Tube Reader (FVTR) for monitoring vent tube fillers. A robust HF RFID-powered non-contact monitoring solution was identified. A high-frequency reader was also required to support that RFID system. The newly designed FVTR was built with a custom designed and molded SLIX2 HF Ring Tag from HID Global, which is injection molded into the vent tube. FEIG Electronics provided its LRM2500 High Frequency Reader coupled with custom developed Enpro electronics. The combined effort ultimately yielded the world’s fastest HF Reading application. High Frequency (HF) RFID operates at 13.56 MHz and is capable of reading anywhere from 30-800 tags per second depending on the air protocol and implementation by the silicon manufacturer.
Quantitative Benefit
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