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Case Study | Automotive - Process monitoring
A global manufacturer of polymer-based products in the automotive and mobility sector is looking for an innovative solution to efficiently manage the variety of its painted bumper systems. Given the complex requirements for RFID detection, Kathrein developed a customized solution that enables precise positioning and automatic identification.
INDUSTRY Automotive industry
About Case Study
Technology for seamless tracking and identification of bumper systems in various production steps, optimizing process monitoring at eight locations worldwide and increasing efficiency
Key Benefits
- Seamless process monitoring through precise tracking and identification of bumpers at every stage of production
- Real-time data transmission for immediate product status updates
KATHREIN PRODUCTS
- RFID-Reade
- CrossTalk software
PARTNER BENFITS
Equipping eight production sites worldwide with a total of 700 RFID reading points and significantly increasing efficiency in production
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IoT solutions at the automotive supplier
The challenge
A global manufacturer of polymer-based products for the automotive and mobility, industrial, furniture and construction sectors wants an IoT solution. The main products in the automotive and mobility sector include painted bumper systems for the automotive industry.
Initial situation
The bumpers of a vehicle type can have a wide range of variants. For this reason, the framework conditions for RFID detection are always variable. The software agent used by Kathrein directly on the RFID reader makes it possible to adjust to changing conditions at any time. Due to the design, it is necessary, for example, to increase the performance or change the reading profile for different types of bumpers. In particular, the very difficult requirements of 100% accurate positioning within the reading points in the new conveyor technology made it necessary to carry out a precise analysis and three-dimensional field simulation of the individual detection points in advance.
Solution
By using RFID reader hardware with an integrated intelligence unit, the CrossTalk automatic identification software can be installed directly in the RFID reader. The CrossTalk agent enables extremely powerful and decentralized data filtering to be carried out directly at the reading point, whereby only the relevant data is sent to the respective ERP system at the various locations. The combination of hardware and CrossTalk AutoID software resulted in a trouble-free solution without any external triggers, which differs from existing RFID solutions in numerous functions. Thanks to new features in the hardware and software, the position and direction of the individual parts can also be tracked very precisely and assigned to the respective production process. As soon as a bumper transponder is detected by a reading station, CrossTalk filters the data and checks it for plausibility, after which the current status of the product to be manufactured is updated in the ERP system.
Result
The RFID system currently tracks and identifies each individual part in the various process steps of injection molding, painting, assembly and quality assurance. This enables seamless process monitoring across the global production sites. The system can also be extended to components and materials from other suppliers. A total of eight plants worldwide have been rolled out with the Kathrein portfolio. In total, almost 700 RFID reading points have been successfully put into operation at the eight locations since 2012.
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Case Study | Automotive - Process monitoring