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The past two days have been screened by the vaccine incident. Just yesterday, Premier Li Keqiang issued an instruction on the vaccine incident and requested that the State Council immediately dispatch an investigation team to conduct a thorough investigation of the entire chain of production and sales of all vaccines, and find out as soon as possible. The truth is that no matter which companies and people are involved, they will resolutely punish and never tolerate loans…
In his instructions, Premier Li emphasized “full-process and full-chain thorough investigations.” I believe that the truth will become clear to the world before long, and he also hopes that there will be no more quality vaccines in the future.
In fact, another important factor in ensuring the quality of vaccines is to ensure the normal operation of the cold chain.
The cold chain refers to the storage, transportation and refrigeration facilities and equipment equipped to ensure the quality of the vaccine during the operation from the vaccine manufacturer to the vaccination unit. Cold chain equipment and facilities include cold chain trucks, vaccine transportation vehicles, cold storage, refrigerators, vaccine freezers, vaccine freezers, ice platters, and houses where equipment is placed.
The transportation and storage of vaccines have temperature requirements. According to experts, except for live attenuated polio vaccines that require storage at -20°C and protected from light, the transportation process can be carried out under refrigerated conditions. All other vaccines require 2°C~ Store and transport in the dark at 8°C.
RFID technology originated in the United Kingdom and was used to identify the identities of enemy and friendly aircraft in World War II. Commercial use began in the 1960s. The U.S. Department of Defense stipulates that after January 1, 2005, all military supplies must use RFID tags; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends that pharmaceutical manufacturers use RFID to track frequently-fake drugs starting in 2006. In 2010, 3% of EU companies applied RFID technology, and the applications were distributed in ID documents and access control, supply chain and inventory tracking, car charging, anti-theft, production control, asset management, etc. This shows that the use of RFID technology in developed countries has become a trend.
RFID tags can be divided into three categories according to their energy acquisition methods: the first category is passive tags. After the tag enters the magnetic field, it receives the radio frequency signal sent by the card reader, and sends the energy stored in the chip by virtue of the energy obtained by the induced current. Product information. This type of tag usually has a digital identity and a limited number of storage units, which are passive tags; the second type is a semi-active tag. The radio frequency circuit of this type of tag also uses induced current to provide energy, and other parts of the circuit are It relies on the built-in battery to provide energy, so it is also a type of passive tag; the third type is an active tag. The built-in battery of this type of tag provides energy for the entire circuit and actively sends data to the receiving device, which is an active tag; In addition to digital identification, the two types of tags also have other key information, such as temperature information, and the storage capacity of this information is relatively large.
RFID temperature tag is a type of tag that closely combines digital identification and temperature measurement. It uses digital identification to complete the identification of materials and at the same time measure and record the environment in which it is located. This article has made some in-depth discussions on RFID temperature tags in the field of modern cold chain transportation.
Figure 1 Temperature tags, readers and applications
1. Introduction to the status quo of cold chain transportation
The cold chain transportation rate of food in the United States, Japan, and Western European countries is 80% to 90%, while that of Eastern European countries is about 50%, while that of my country is only about 10%. It is understood that the waste caused by discarding rotten food in my country last year reached 70 billion yuan, accounting for as much as 20% of the total value of food production. This waste is mainly due to the lack of a cold chain transportation system, which causes some foods to be discarded during transportation because they cannot be kept fresh for a long time. For medicines, temperature deviation will lead to deterioration of the quality of the medicines, and even toxic mutations; the freezing of peptides and protein drugs will reduce the potency, affect the efficacy, lose the freezing activity of the vaccine, and even produce harmful toxins.
For cold chain transportation, we must know its temperature. The traditional monitoring method is to use a temperature recorder to measure and record the temperature of the entire carriage, that is, each transport vehicle puts one or more temperature recorders to measure and record the transportation. For the temperature in the process, when the goods reach the destination of transportation, the temperature recorder and the computer are connected to the computer through a wired connection to import the data into the computer, and then perform data statistics and analysis, such as finding the maximum, minimum, and curve trends. Traditional temperature recorders are expensive, bulky, unable to measure the temperature of a single cabinet, unable to automatically identify product information, and require wired connection and manual intervention to export data. They cannot meet the requirements of temperature monitoring in the modern cold chain transportation industry. .
In addition to temperature, the cold chain transportation industry also faces a problem of distinguishing responsibilities. A person in charge of cold chain transportation once expressed this feeling: “Our company’s refrigerated transportation and cold storage are controlled in accordance with the temperature of food standards, but we receive from suppliers. When the goods are delivered, it is often found that the supplier does not operate the goods according to the corresponding temperature. In this case, we will re-freeze the goods and then transport them to various stores, but once there is a problem in the store, the customer will transfer the responsibility to us On the head.” On the other hand, for some companies that are not very responsible, in order to save costs, customers turn on the cold machine when loading the goods, and turn off the refrigeration equipment during the transportation process, which is almost the goal. When the cold machine is turned on at the local time, the whole process cannot be started. When the goods are delivered, although the surface of the goods is frozen well, it has actually deteriorated. Therefore, the problem of distinguishing responsibility is also an issue that needs to be solved urgently, that is, when the product quality does not meet the requirements when the product arrives at the receiver, it must be determined whether it is caused by the temperature of the cargo transportation that does not meet the requirements. It is out of this concern that some major domestic pharmaceutical companies would rather spend a lot of money to build a logistics company rather than use a third-party cold chain transportation company. Obviously, the cost of doing so is expensive.
2. Application of temperature label in cold chain transportation
RFID as an emerging automatic non-contact identification technology has been rapidly developed at home and abroad[1], The introduction of RFID technology into the field of logistics applications has become a hot spot.Designed and developed a tobacco logistics sorting system based on RFID technology to realize the automatic sorting operation of tobacco products; based on the demand analysis of the logistics tracking system of automobile manufacturing enterprises, a logistics tracking management system based on RFID was proposed[4]; For a series of applications, the above applications only use RFID as an identification to identify products. For the modern cold chain transportation industry, not only the identification of its products must be concerned, but also the temperature value associated with it. The temperature label has both digital identification and temperature information, which can meet the requirements of temperature monitoring for cold chain transportation.
2.1 Semi-active RFID temperature tags that can be used for retrospect
The semi-active temperature tag provides energy for temperature collection and storage through the built-in battery, and can independently complete the temperature collection and storage. When it enters the effective recognition range of the card reader, the energy is obtained through the excitation of the card reader to complete the data exchange. This temperature tag has extremely low current consumption.
There are two main types of semi-active temperature tags: high-frequency temperature tags conforming to the ISO/IEC 15693 standard “as shown in Figure 2” and UHF temperature tags conforming to the ISO/IEC 18000 standard. The main difference between the two is reflected in the penetrating power and the recognition distance. The high-frequency temperature tag has strong penetrating power and is suitable for a wide range. It can be applied to both liquid cargo (such as blood products) and solid cargo (such as quick-frozen food). ) Transportation, the disadvantage is that the recognition distance is relatively short. Even with the aid of a high-power card reader, the effective recognition distance is usually kept within 1 meter, “as shown in Figure 3”. For tags, the recognition distance is greatly increased, but its penetrability is weaker than that of high-frequency tags.
Figure 2 13.56M semi-active temperature tag and card reader
Figure 3 13.56M semi-active high-power card reader
The use process of the semi-active temperature tag is as follows: When the product is out of the warehouse, according to the needs of cargo transportation, set the temperature tag’s startup time and collection interval period, and put the temperature tag in the cargo shipping box and deliver it to the freight forwarder; After the goods are out of the warehouse, the temperature tag will automatically start the temperature recording function after the specified time is reached, and continuously record the ambient temperature value with the preset collection period; in the process of goods transfer, the RFID of the cargo box is read through the handheld terminal The information and temperature of the label to ensure the validity of the goods; in the storage of the product, a handheld terminal or a high-power fixed card reader can conveniently, quickly and accurately sort the goods according to the RFID label information while verifying whether the temperature is consistent Its storage temperature directly rejects unqualified products. When goods that meet the storage temperature requirements are stored in the warehouse, the temperature data will be synchronized into the database. The entire temperature record is realized during the entire logistics process to ensure product quality.
The application process is shown in Figure 4:
2.2 Active RFID temperature tags that can be used for real-time temperature collection of a large number of goods
Semi-active temperature tags have the function of temperature recording, similar to black boxes, and are mainly used for post-event liability determination. For real-time temperature alarms during transportation, active temperature tags can be used. The active temperature tag can measure the ambient temperature value in real time and actively send the data to the receiving device, so it can quickly respond to abnormal situations to remind the driver to take measures to avoid losses. The reading device can read the real-time temperature of a large number of temperature tags at the same time, realize the data recording function through the built-in SD card of the card reader, and realize the real-time temperature alarm through SMS through the GSM module. In addition, the receiving device itself has the gateway function and can realize remote monitoring. The data is directly stored in the data center through the networking function, and the end customer can also view the product temperature information in time through the Web page. The active temperature tag must be used in conjunction with the reading device, so it is limited to the monitoring of the temperature of the cargo in the cold chain transportation. , In order to realize the real-time monitoring of the temperature of the goods.
There are four main operating frequency bands for active temperature tags: 433MHz, 915MHz, 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz. There is no obvious difference between these four frequency bands. Only the 433 frequency band is slightly better in penetration, and the most important thing is the cost. The difference. Since active temperature tags are actively sending data, in addition to power consumption and effective identification distance, the anti-collision capability of the data and the maximum number of identification tags are also important performance indicators.
3. Conclusion
The semi-active temperature tag and the active temperature tag are two highly complementary products. The semi-active temperature tag can collect and record the ambient temperature value of the transported goods. It can operate independently from the card reader and can be used to record the goods. In the production, storage, transportation, sales, and the environmental temperature of each link before consumption, the temperature traceability of the whole process can be realized, so it can effectively distinguish the accident liability problem, and it can be applied to both the transporter and the consignor of the goods; the active temperature label is actually The characteristics of timeliness, simultaneous reading of a large number of tags, and good scalability are more suitable for temperature monitoring of cold chain vehicles. Transporters of goods tend to choose such products. Through the combination of the two, we hope to effectively improve the quality of cold chain transportation, thereby ensuring the quality of goods.
Replenish
Nowadays, in addition to RFID technology, NFC has also made some developments in the cold chain field. Regarding RFID and NFC, some more detailed introductions:
RFID
Non-contact radio frequency identification (RFID) is essentially a wireless communication technology, which also transmits data through wireless electromagnetic waves. However, unlike general communication technology, its purpose is not to make a phone call or send a text message. RFID is mainly used to identify and track tags bound to objects, so as to realize the management of objects.
RFID technology is widely used in warehousing logistics to track goods
The RFID system uses tags to identify objects. In addition to the tag, the RFID system also has a two-way wireless transceiver, called Interrogator/Reader, which sends signals to the tag and reads the tag’s feedback.
The RFID system consists of a reader and a tag
RFID is divided into passive RFID and active RFID. Passive RFID generally refers to a passive RFID without a battery, which completely relies on receiving electromagnetic waves to drive the circuit to work, and the recognizable distance of the tag will not change. An active RFID system generally refers to an active RFID tag, and its recognizable distance will decrease with the decrease of power.
The ETC system using RFID technology makes traffic more convenient
Active RFID generally has a relatively long recognition distance. For example, automatic toll stations on highways and ETC systems in automatic parking lots generally use active RFID that works at 2.4 GHz. However, there is a battery in the ETC label. If the battery is dead, you need to replace the battery to work.
RFID tags
The RFID tag consists of two parts: an integrated circuit (IC: Integrated Circuit) and an antenna:
IC is used to store and process data, modulate and demodulate the RF signal, and also need to collect energy from the signal sent by the reader to drive itself.
The role of the antenna is to transmit and receive wireless signals.
EPC code format, EPC code may gradually replace the traditional UPC code, that is, product barcode
What is stored in the RFID tag?
The data format stored in the RFID tag is generally EPC (Electronic Product Code) code. EPC code can identify all objects in the world. The structure of the EPC code is defined by the EPCglobal Tag Data Standard, which is an open standard and can be downloaded for free from the EPCglobalInc website.
NFC technology
After talking about RFID, let’s talk about Near Field Communication (NFC: Near Field Communication). NFC is a very common communication interface for mobile phones. Allows smart devices to exchange data by approaching each other. NFC devices can also communicate with a passive NFC tag. This communication method is the same as RFID.
NFC technology evolved from RFID technology. In addition to the communication protocol, the NFC standard also specifies the data exchange format. The NFC single chip combines inductive card reader, inductive card and point-to-point functions, which can identify and exchange data with compatible devices within a short distance.
The difference between NFC and RFID
(1) Working frequency band
NFC can be understood as a subset of RFID technology, using the 13.56MHz frequency band, while RFID also includes other frequency bands.
There are many working frequency bands for RFID, such as 125KHz in the low frequency band, 13.56MHz in the high frequency band, 433.92MHz and 915MHz in the ultra-high frequency band, and 2.45GHz in the microwave frequency band.
(2) Communication distance
NFC is called near field communication, and the communication distance is indeed very close, no more than 0.1m.
There are many types of RFID, and the recognition distance is also different. Like RFID access control cards, the recognition distance is similar to that of NFC. But for the application scenario of ETC, the recognition distance is required to be relatively long. The recognition distance of long-distance RFID can reach tens of meters or even hundreds of meters.
(3) Application scenarios
Whether RFID is active or passive, its main job is to identify objects. RFID technology is widely used in logistics, transportation, and warehousing to track goods.
The NFC chip is more integrated, including a card reader and a tag. In addition, the two-way communication capability of NFC has been strengthened. In other words, NFC can be used not only as a tag for identification, but also as a two-way communication method for data exchange. At present, NFC is most commonly used in the field of payment.
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