Sistema RFID aumenta a eficiência na produção de tubos de cobre

Um fabricante chinês monitora o processo de produção de tubos de cobre com um sistema RFID de controle descentralizado da Turck usando gateways BL20

A produção de tubos de cobre envolve muitas etapas de produção em máquinas operando de forma independente. A Turck equipou um fabricante chinês com um sistema RFID para controlar o fluxo de material e evitar a necessidade de documentação manual intensiva. As antenas de leitura / escrita Q175 lêem o número de estruturas de metal por meio de etiquetas UHF robustas. O sistema I/O modular BL20 transfere isso para o sistema de controle de produção da empresa e ao mesmo tempo controla a operação descentralizada dos leitores RFID.

A programmable gateway in Turck's BL20 I/O system controls the RFID readers decentrally
The robust UHF data carrier can be mounted directly on the metal frame
Turck's read/write head Q175 uses UHF RFID technology to detect even distant data carriers
Copper pipes are wound on material frames during many production steps

Production control system requires real-time data

The transition from production-oriented to service and requirements-oriented production also means: greater coordination between man, machine and the product and the provision of more accurate information about the current material flow. A major Chinese manufacturer now has a solution using a production control system – using real-time data from the field. An RFID solution for this was recently supplied by Turck (Tianjin) Sensor Technology Co. – consisting of over 180 read/write heads and some 1,400 robust tags with IP69K protection.

In the cold forming of copper pipes, employees of the Chinese company used to manually transfer all production data, such as raw material information or process parameters. In order to simplify material management, system integrators at Turck Engineering Control Systems therefore provided an RFID solution in direct proximity to the machines. This is used to control the entire production process. The engineers made use of the fact here that the copper pipes are located on round metal frames during the production steps in the cold forming stage. The material information about a batch can be linked with the relevant frame, to which an RFID tag can be attached easily.

Robust RFID tags for mounting on metal

For this Turck uses robust hard tags that are especially suited for mounting on metal and also stay fixed to the frame even when it is being rotated at high speed. The number of the particular material frame is stored on a tag, and is then assigned in the production management system to a particular batch. To do this, the production management system accesses the database.

Information exchange between RFID reader, UHF tag and MES

A Q175 RFID UHF read/write head is installed in the close proximity of each workstation. This reads the number of a material frame; and notably with UHF technology, since there is some distance between reader and tag, and the RFID tags are not always located directly in the detection range of the reader due to the rotations of the frame. The link to the production management system enables the exchange between tag, read/write head as well as the higher-level manufacturing execution system (MES).

Ethernet gateway as independent controller

The communication between the read/write heads and the production management system is provided by Turck's BL20 I/O system, which also controls the decentralized operation of the RFID readers. In addition to different connection modules such as for RFID devices, it consists of a BL20-PG-EN-V3 programmable multiprotocol Ethernet gateway. This acts as an independent controller of each local RFID system, since no local PLC is in place and a number of field devices have to be addressed in real time.

Conclusion: Integration helper for Industry 4.0

Turck's RFID system supports the increasingly digitalized manufacturing of the Chinese copper pipe manufacturer. It offers a real-time material tracking capability in production management, which also serves quality control, ensures the clear assignment of materials and transfers data on time inside the ongoing process. “This has considerably improved efficiency and punctuality in production,” project manager Jianqiang sums up.

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