Georgia Port Authority plans to use RFID technology to improve efficiency and throughput
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On April 11, the Georgia Port Authority (GPA) is installing an RFID system in the Port of Savannah to track shipping containers entering and leaving the port. RFID technology will improve the safety and visibility of shipping containers entering and leaving ports.
According to the calculation of shipment volume in 2003, the Port of Savannah is the 11th busiest maritime international trade cargo channel in the United States. The Port of Savannah ranks 24th among all land, sea, and air routes; previously, it was ranked 30th in 1999. Every year, more than 21 billion U.S. dollars of international cargo enters and exits the United States through this port.
The RFID system includes IDENTEC SOLUTIONS’s “smart long-distance” 915MHz active RFID tag and reader, as well as a new product called i-Mark by the company. i-Mark is an accurate positioning device that can be built-in or buried The 125KHz induction coil is used to record the position, direction and time of the truck entering the dock crossing. The system also uses Navis’ Edge middleware management software to collect and manage RFID tags, underground induction coils and other hardware device data and transmit it to the following devices: SPARCS (terminal control subsystem), Express (processing such as document transmission, printing, etc.) Task subsystem), Web Access (web-based software portal, so that GPA customers can check the real-time situation of the container). In addition, the system also uses SAIC’s OCR software. Mike Dempsey, GPA’s vice president and Navis’Edge project leader, hopes that the system will start running this summer.
Bill Sutton, general manager of GPA’s information department, said: “Our customers continue to increase, so we must be fully efficient and maximize throughput.”
A few months ago, GPA and the Maritime Logistics Research Center (MLIC) began testing RFID technology on a small scale. At that time, Savi’s RFID global container shipping tracking system: SaviTrak was used. But after a series of tests, GPA finally chose the ILR (intelligent long distance) series of active products from IDENTEC SOLUTIONS.
GPA has purchased 7,500 i-B2L tags from IDENTEC SOLUTIONS, each with a unique number, and then pastes these tags on the trucks rented by the logistics company. Most trucks belong to logistics companies, so that they can be permanently tagged with RFID. At present, GPA is issuing RFID tags to various logistics companies. In the future, the company will be able to check the real-time status of trucks with RFID tags through the Internet. Dempsey said: For those trucks that are not part of a logistics company and only enter the port a few times a year, they can put a temporary label when they enter the port. These labels will be magnetized and directly attached to the truck.
When a truck enters the crossing of the port, the RFID reader will scan the tag, and the Navis Edge management software will send it to Navis Express. Navis Express will verify whether the tag number has been registered. The implementation of the system probably requires the installation of 12 fixed RFID readers at the crossing, and the reading range of each reader is about 100 meters (300 feet).
The container will then be transported by truck to the yard, where it will be inspected by the three checkpoints below. First, SAIC’s OCR equipment scans the serial number printed on the chassis of each truck and its container; then, weighs the weight of the truck; finally, manually checks whether the sealing of the truck container is intact. Every time the truck passes an inspection point, i-Mark will send the corresponding time information to the tag. After the tag receives these time information, it periodically sends the tag number to the RFID reader. The reader will transfer these RFID tag information (including the time information in the tag, OCR information and the result information of the sealing inspection) to Navis’ Edge management software. After that, Navis Express judges the current status of the truck and automatically sends an electronic document, which is printed and sent to the driver’s mobile phone to instruct each driver to proceed to the next step.
Dempsey said: This RFID system will increase the speed at which trucks enter the port, and at the same time reduce the time that trucks stay in the port and traffic jams. In this way, our efficiency will be the highest among all American ports, and the increase in throughput will also increase a lot.
GPA has also installed IDENTEC SOLUTIONS RFID interrogators on cranes and other container handling facilities. For example, a 70-foot RTG (tire crane) crane has installed interrogators and an accurate positioning device i-Mark. When the truck container is unloaded by the RTG (Tire Crane), the accurate positioning device i-Mark sends location and time information to the tag. After that, the tag sends this information to the reader, and then the reader to the Edge management software. After the management software processes it, it sends it to SPARC as an official document stating that the container has been unloaded. SPARC can also continuously count the number of unloaded containers to indicate the specific location of the next batch of unloaded goods.
The unloading instruction information will be processed by the corresponding computer, and then a ground personnel will use wireless to notify each RTG crane operator, instructing them where to place the container. Dempsey said: The RTG (tyre crane) crane that used to be 70-80 feet tall had to be lowered, and the number on the top of the container was read manually, which was highly dangerous. In addition to improving efficiency, the use of the new system also improves safety and saves human resources. To know that IDENTEC SOLUTIONS’s handheld RFID reader i-CARD series products can also reach a reading distance of 100 meters (300 feet).
In this project, a total of more than 10,000 tags will be installed on containers and trucks, and more than 40 fixed readers will be installed in various places in the terminal, and each crane will be equipped with a handheld reader , Adopt the i-CARD portable reader from IDENTEC SOLUTIONS company, and use Psion Teklogix handheld industrial PDA.
Gabriel (China) is the only marketing agency of IDENTEC SOLUTIONS in the Chinese market. For more details, please contact Gabriel (China) at 010-62029007, or log in to Gabriel (China) For more information on the company website:
www.gabriel-china.com
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