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Keeping Tabs on Your Lp Gas Cylinder Assets

By Barbara Masin, Electronic Identification Devices Ltd

Though new to the lpg gas industry, Trovan’s electronic tagging technology has been used for 20 years.

Having trouble monitoring vendor performance? Is manipulation of lpg cylinders by transporters a problem? Do you want to decrease or even eliminate paperwork and prevent loss and thefts of assets? If your answer to any of these is yes, a new technology will help you accomplish all of these goals and more.

Though new to the lp gas business, the electronic asset tagging technology offered by Trovan Ltd, for which Electronic Identification Devices Ltd is the US distributor, has been in use by major corporations and national governments around the world for 20 years. With over 180 million transponders incorporating Trovan technology deployed to date, companies as diverse as Coca Cola, Daimler Benz, Siemens and Pfizer are all using the Trovan system to manage and keep tabs on their assets.

Each tag is basically a little radio with no battery, consisting of a uniquely coded IC and an antenna inside a hermetically sealed capsule. The transponder is placed on the asset using special heavy-duty epoxy adhesive and then over-painted. Once fitted, the transponder is invisible to the naked eye and tough for miscreants to find and remove.

The transponder is completely inert and inactive until a compatible reader excites it, when it returns its unique ID code. The system will work in the harshest of environments. You can read transponders through paint, dirt, mud, grease and even concrete. Transponders are not vulnerable to scratching, scuffing or abrasion, and they will provide reliable, unique identification for the life of the lpg cylinder.

Because of the transponders’ ability to perform even when attached to metal, the technology is suitable for identifying existing metal lpg gas cylinders, even those with closed ring handles. Trovan tags will work on lpg cylinders that are in very poor condition.

Its unmatched reading distance and read speed make the technology suitable for use on fully automated production lines. Tagged metal lp gas cylinders can be read even on moving conveyors – no slowdowns or stops, spacing between cylinders or special orientation are needed.

The transponders can be quickly and easily attached to lpg cylinders during manufacture before being put into service, and also retrofitted easily to existing stock. No drilling of holes or rivets is required to attach them, and they can be attached in seconds.

A Trovan-based asset management system can be implemented in stages. Initially, an operator may wish to use the system to improve efficiency within the lp gas bottling plant or, if desired, may begin by addressing route accounting issues.

As a first step, every lpg cylinder must be fitted with a transponder. If in-plant operations control is the goal, fixed scanners must be installed on in-plant conveyors and at filling stations. If route accounting and distribution management is the objective, each driver receives a portable reader.

Compatible ID cards are issued to each agent or distributor, and optionally to customers. Cylinders are scanned as they are loaded onto trucks.

Delivery drivers scan ID cards and full lpg cylinders on delivery to agents and/or customers. They scan the empty lp gas cylinders upon pickup from the agent/customer. A cylinder condition code can be added, if needed, and the driver can generate a receipt on location. As lpg gas cylinders are unloaded at the plant, they are read automatically and processed through the plant (including weighing).

Trovan has developed a line of ATEX-certified readers and transponders that are safe and fully certified for use in explosive hazardous Zone 1 and gas group IIA and IIB environments. Using Trovan transponders and readers, lp gas bottling operations can be automated and the number of workstations reduced.

Benefits include an increase in bottling and quality performance; automatic monitoring of lpg cylinder turnaround time from distributors and customers; lifecycle analysis of cylinders, valves and ‘O’ rings; access to real time supply chain data; improved inventory control and production planning, and detection of non-performing assets.

Automating plant operations and route management decreases inventory time and personnel requirements, reduces or eliminates paperwork and allows the company to combat asset loss and theft. Workers in the organisation can share paperless data instantly over intra and internet, greatly reducing data input and human error.

The technology can be used to determine lp gas cylinder ownership, to combat bootlegging and to detect illicit cylinders. Additionally, use of the technology will speed up circulation of lp gas cylinder inventory, thereby lowering the capital investment required.

The Trovan electronic ID system will work in lpg plant and supply chain environments where barcodes will not. Investment in the technology will more than pay for itself through increased safety, security and efficiencies.

Trovan Ltd and Electronic Identification Devices Ltd will be exhibiting on stand number 62 at the 2010 AEGPL Congress in Madrid on September 28-October 1.

Contact Trovan Ltd on +49 221 395893 www.trovan.com

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