Chemical giant BASF tracks railcars carrying dangerous goods in real time
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The chemical company BASF is now installing a wireless asset tracking system to monitor the location and status of its rail fleet of six most dangerous chemical substances. GE Asset Intelligence provided VeriWise tracking equipment and VeriWise software system to provide BASF with visibility of 1,000 railcars from chemical plants to customers across North America (a total of 7,000).
The VeriWise asset tracking device includes a GPS receiver, a communications satellite receiver, and a battery (charged by four solar panels), as well as optional sensors to detect pressure, movement, and temperature. The size of the whole equipment is 2.5 inches * 11 inches * 30 inches, and it is fixed on the top of the rail car with bolts. Once installed, the device sends its ID code, location, and any other information to the VeriWise server hosted by GE at preset time intervals via low-orbit satellites. BASF can obtain this information through the Internet. According to Steven P. Williams, BASF’s logistics technology manager, if a specific accident occurs, such as a rail car collision, temperature fluctuations exceeding a preset value, or the vault of the vehicle is passive (the hatch is built on the top of the vehicle) , You can enter the carriage from here), the VeriWise software running on the server will send an alarm to notify BASF and authorized customers,
In 2005, Doug Hoehn, head of business at GE Asset Intelligence, stated that BASF began to work with GE to find an automated solution to provide better visibility for railcars operating in North America. BASF is interested in two things: one is the efficiency of vehicle management; the other is to improve safety based on vehicle condition data. Safety-related information can be provided to relevant agencies, such as the Traffic Safety Administration (TSA).
The VeriWise tracking device is installed on the top of the rail car and is charged by four solar panels
BASF uses railcars to transport 50 different commodities-including some dangerous goods. The company’s track management center manages the fleet and is responsible for tracking the location of each track car, whether it is loaded or empty. Before the company installed the VeriWise system, most of the data in the center came from railway companies.
BASF only owns some of the rail cars used, and the others are leased cars. In both cases, if company employees want to know the location of a particular vehicle, they need to contact the railway operator, who has to do some field work, such as contacting a specific track yard, and sometimes they must send railway workers to the track to check the vehicle’s status. Serial code. If the railcar stays at a specific location for too long, the railway will charge BASF a demurrage fee, which is very expensive and cannot be confirmed. “We want more accurate and timely data to help us reduce the number of vehicles in our fleet,” Williams said.
Moreover, if the vehicle carrying the most dangerous chemical substance has an accident, BASF hopes to be alerted as soon as possible. In the past three years, BASF has been using and improving GE VeriWise technology, including hardware and software. The initial application uses 133 tracking devices to test and improve the stability of the hardware. BASF and GE have also developed server software to provide the information that BASF needs most. Currently, Williams says, the company uses the fifth version of the hardware and the fourth version of the software.
Multiple versions of the upgrade feature include the latest tracking device to receive and send data at the same time (so that BASF can directly communicate with the device), the software can set multiple levels of authorized users, such as BASF employees and customers. The company installs VeriWise equipment on every railcar used to transport the most dangerous chemicals. There are currently more than 1,000 vehicles with equipment installed, and BASF’s target number is 1,200.
According to Williams, every tracking device installed by BASF includes a set of position, pressure and motion sensors. The device is set to send its position and pressure or movement data via satellite at a rate of 4 times a day. The sensor allows the company to know the location of the vehicle, whether it has received any impact (which may cause damage to the vehicle, or pose a potential risk to the storage of chemicals in the vehicle), and how long the vehicle is moving or stationary. Each location where the vehicle is loaded or unloaded (such as the BASF factory and customer location) is input to the server as an electronic boundary location. When the vehicle arrives and leaves a specific location, the system sends information.
For more dangerous chemical vehicles, the sensor connected to the device will indicate when the vault of the vehicle may be opened outside the electronic boundary. They also use temperature sensors to track changes in the temperature in the car. In this way, the company can know when the temperature of the chemical substance is too high or when it is too low. This data can also be used for business analysis, Williams said, because it provides a specific temperature information for chemical loading or unloading.
Customers require that some chemicals must be at a certain temperature when they are unloaded. Based on this requirement, BASF will heat or cool a certain chemical substance before shipment to meet the customer’s temperature requirements when it arrives. For example, the company will heat a certain chemical substance to 110 degrees Celsius to ensure that it reaches the required 75 degrees when it arrives. Now that the temperature data is available, the company can better judge the cooling rate of the chemical substance and adjust the heating process accordingly.
The company also hopes that this system can save the overdue costs caused by the long stay of rail cars in the yard. Based on the conflict sensor data, Williams explained that BASF can understand when the vehicle may be damaged and in which process the accident occurred.
The safety of the system is of utmost importance to BASF, Williams said. Starting next week, the company plans to provide TSA with alarm data, such as collision incidents or rail car damage. When an accident occurs, the system immediately sends an alert to BASF, including data on specific chemical substances in the vehicle, whether the vehicle is upside down or overturned, and where it occurred.
One problem encountered in hardware development is power consumption, which depends on the diversification of the sensor kit. If a device sends a signal at a rate of more than four times a day, it will consume power faster. Railcars cannot generate electricity by themselves, so GE and BASF connect solar panels to the equipment’s rechargeable batteries.
Williams believes that this system will bring multiple economic benefits to the company: reducing overdue fees, increasing vehicle utilization, and greater visibility of accident liability.
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