In what fields can RFID technology be used intelligently

In recent years, with the continuous advancement of digital transformation and intelligent manufacturing, the degree of industrial automation has been continuously improved. In this process, RFID, as an important automatic identification and data collection technology, has been widely used in the industrial field and integrated and interacted with the digital systems of enterprises (such as ERP, MES, WMS, etc.). RFID technology plays an important role in reducing manual data collection errors, saving labor and operating costs, achieving product tracking and tracing, meeting special process requirements, and improving production efficiency and product quality.

1. Empowering intelligent manufacturing industry RFID is indispensable

RFID is a non-contact automatic identification technology realized by radio frequency communication. It uses wireless radio frequency to carry out two-way data communication to realize data exchange and target identification between RFID Readers and RFID tags. RFID technology has the advantages of high efficiency, accuracy, reliability and convenience. It is widely used in logistics management, identity identification, anti-counterfeiting and traceability. It can automatically identify targets without human intervention, adapt to various environments, and has high reliability. At the same time, RFID technology can also realize long-distance identification and batch reading of data, which greatly improves the efficiency and accuracy of data reading. In addition, RFID technology can also be combined with Internet technology to realize data sharing and information exchange on a global scale. Therefore, RFID technology is widely used in modern logistics, supply chain management, retail, transportation, healthcare and other fields.

A typical RFID system consists of a computer system, an RFID reader and RFID tag. The computer system includes controllers such as PC or PLC, and even WMS, MES, ERP and other systems at the user site to receive information fed back by the RFID reader. This information may include data, identification results, statistical data, etc. of the object to be traced.

The RFID reader is a key part of the RFID system. It communicates with the RFID tag through a wireless transceiver module and completes the reading and writing operations of the information in the RFID tag. The RFID tag is the carrier of the data of the object to be traced, and realizes automatic identification and data transmission through interaction with the RFID reader.

In a typical RFID system, each part cooperates with each other to complete the automatic identification, data collection and transmission tasks of the object. The use of RFID technology can improve the accuracy and efficiency of data collection, reduce costs, and improve work efficiency.

In the industrial field, RFID technology, as an important automatic identification and data collection technology, plays an indispensable role in intelligent manufacturing and Industry 4.0. It not only improves production efficiency and product quality, but also is one of the core technologies for realizing intelligent industry. Through RFID technology, every link in the production process can be tracked, monitored and managed in real time to ensure the smoothness and efficiency of the production process. At the same time, RFID technology can effectively solve the errors caused by traditional manual data entry and improve the accuracy and reliability of data collection.

In the context of intelligent manufacturing and Industry 4.0, the application of RFID technology will promote industrial development into a new stage. Through real-time data collection and intelligent management, enterprises can better grasp the production situation, adjust production plans in time, optimize resource allocation, and improve production efficiency. At the same time, RFID technology also helps to improve product quality and safety, and bring better product experience to consumers.

In the industrial field, we often encounter situations where a large number of devices need to be networked and data collected. These devices are of various types, including PLC, robots, automation equipment, etc. They usually have their own communication interfaces and communication protocols, and can transmit and communicate data with the upper system. However, not all devices have communication capabilities. In many scenarios, we also need to consider some items, such as Tools, workpieces, raw materials, semi-finished or finished products, pallets for loading materials, etc., which do not have communication capabilities themselves, but these objects are equally important for enterprise production, and even more numerous.

In order to enable these objects without communication capabilities to communicate and collect data with the upper system, we need to mark RFID tags on these objects or Assets. These RFID tags can be used as an automatic identification technology to transmit information through radio waves to achieve automatic identification and data collection. Once these objects or assets are marked with RFID tags, they can Store and pass information such as the surrounding environment, storage status, and location to the upper information management system. In this way, enterprises can achieve transparency in the production chain and supply chain and track and trace the product throughout the entire cycle.

With this information, enterprises can conduct in-depth analysis and mining to make more accurate and scientific decisions. For example, enterprises can understand the bottleneck problems in the production process and optimize the production process based on the data analysis of the production chain; based on the data analysis of the supply chain, predict future market demand and formulate more reasonable procurement and inventory strategies. Therefore, the use of RFID technology can not only improve production efficiency, but also help enterprises make more scientific and reasonable decisions.

2. Broad application prospects Unique advantages and value of RFID

In industrial production environments, data identification technology plays a vital role. At present, barcode, QR code and RFID technology are commonly used data recognition technologies in industrial scenarios. However, each technology has its limitations. For example, barcode technology needs to match a specific light source and has high requirements for the brightness of the light source. At the same time, the scanner needs to be aligned with the light to successfully read the information. This technology has high requirements for mechanical precision and can only read one barcode at a time, which is inefficient. In addition, barcodes are easily worn and dirty, have a short service life, and cannot be modified and reused.

On the other hand, although the two-dimensional barcode provides a solution in terms of information capacity and adds information error correction functions, it can realize functions such as reading and anti-counterfeiting on the surface of objects through laser engraving technology, but there are still some disadvantages. For example, its application scenarios are relatively limited and cannot fully meet the needs of complex application scenarios in industrial production.

Compared with barcode recognition technology, RFID has the following advantages:

① Group reading: RFID can automatically identify data in batches, with fast recognition speed, even objects moving at high speed can be quickly identified. At the same time, RFID recognition work does not require human intervention, realizing unmanned operation.

②Non-contact reading and writing: There is no need for mechanical contact between the RFID tag and the RFID reader/writer, and the reading and writing are convenient and fast. There is no need to align the object. The reading and writing of data does not require a light source, and RFID can penetrate non-metallic materials, with a larger effective identification distance.

③Strong anti-fouling ability and environmental adaptability: RFID uses radio communication, which is suitable for harsh indoor and outdoor environments. It has strong corrosion resistance to water, oil, chemicals, etc., and the closed packaging makes its life much longer than the printed barcode.

④Large data capacity: The data capacity of RFID tags can be expanded to several megabytes according to user needs, which is much higher than the capacity of two-dimensional barcodes.

⑤Uniqueness: Each RFID tag is unique, and there will be no situation where the same RFID tag is reused or multiple products correspond to one tag.

⑥Readable, writable and reusable: RFID tags can read and write data, can be recycled, and have strong reusability, thereby saving user costs.

⑦High security: The information stored in the RFID chip is password protected and is not easy to be forged, stolen or tampered with.

Based on the above unique advantages, RFID technology has broad application prospects and value in the fields of fast-moving consumer goods, retail, logistics, manufacturing, transportation, public safety and military. Especially in the context of intelligent manufacturing and digital transformation, RFID systems have become an important application technology in the industrial field.

In the industrial field, the application value of RFID technology includes realizing the automation and real-time collection of production data, making up for the information gap between the enterprise planning layer and the control layer, and improving the flexibility of production; automating the production process to avoid human errors; managing or reducing inventory; tracking, managing and controlling the resources and work-in-progress required for production, and realizing the transparency and visualization of the production process; improving the timeliness and accuracy of material distribution at the production site, and reducing the assembly error rate; strengthening the quality monitoring and tracking capabilities of the production process, improving product quality and the overall efficiency of the production line; optimizing management decisions through the analysis and mining of collected data, etc.

3. How to use RFID systems in the industrial field

In recent years, in the fields of consumer goods retail and logistics, Walmart, Metro, Decathlon, Uniqlo, Nike, Adidas, JD.com, Cainiao, etc. have been working hard to promote the application of RFID technology and promote digital transformation of logistics and supply chain management. With the advancement of intelligent manufacturing and digital transformation, RFID systems have gradually become a rigid demand in industries with a high degree of industrial automation. Today, RFID technology has been effective in many subdivided industrial fields, helping enterprises with digital transformation and intelligent upgrading.

(1) Automobile industry

The characteristics of the automobile manufacturing industry are complex product structure, fast update, diverse configuration, high quality requirements, and increasingly popular C2M personalized customization. At the same time, automobile manufacturers mostly adopt JIT (Just in Time) production and mixed flow production mode, and pay great attention to the delivery, tracking and management of materials. Applying RFID technology to the automobile manufacturing industry can make the production progress more transparent and visual, realize the lean and agile management of the production workshop, the automation and intelligence of the production process, and comprehensive quality management, which is conducive to improving the management and control level of the production process, improving production organization, shortening the production cycle, reducing the number of work-in-progress, improving product quality and reducing human resource consumption.

Typical applications of RFID systems in the automotive industry include: automatic identification and statistics of automotive parts, error prevention management and anti-counterfeiting traceability; full tracking of the vehicle production process, real-time monitoring and management of the vehicle's location, status and production process, and providing real-time and accurate assembly guidance for manual work; automatic control of each production process to improve the production process level; collection and association of vehicle and parts information, improvement of vehicle quality-related data, and traceability of product quality; automatic identification and tracking of key equipment, especially key equipment directly related to production, to ensure that these equipment are fully maintained; inventory management and ASSET MANAGEMENT of raw materials, finished products, semi-finished products, etc., to improve logistics efficiency and supply chain transparency.

For example, BMW has configured an RFID system on its assembly line to ensure that operators can complete assembly tasks without errors. Honda has deployed an RFID system at its assembly plant in Indiana, USA, to track the location and assembly progress of each vehicle. Volkswagen has applied RFID technology to prototype production and test optimization, realizing automatic identification and recording of parts data and shortening the time for R&D test improvement. SAIC-GM-Wuling has achieved mixed production of more than 6 types of cylinder blocks by installing RFID tags on the cylinder block and cylinder head processing production line, and the quality data and process data of the entire production line are effectively collected. A North American automobile factory uses RFID series to record the motor assembly process to ensure process control quality and realize product information traceability to ensure compliance with regulatory standards. In addition, a leading automobile industry company has cooperated with Sigu Intelligent to apply 10,000 pallet RFID tags, 16 warehouse intelligent channel doors, 20 RFID smart handheld devices, 16 AGV carts and warehouse management systems to achieve real-time data collection of the entire process of inbound and outbound production logistics, reducing abnormal labor time losses caused by material shortages by 80% and reducing manual handling costs by 70%.

(2) 3C electronics industry

The 3C electronics industry is known for its short product life cycle, fast upgrades, and frequent process changes. In order to be able to flexibly respond to market demand, with the advancement of intelligent manufacturing, the industry is undergoing a development transformation from automation to digitalization and then to intelligence. Therefore, the 3C electronics industry has high requirements for flexible automation, digitalization and intelligence in the production process. It pays great attention to production process control, feeding error prevention, material traceability, work-in-process traceability and control, and quality management, and is also crucial for the refined management of production auxiliary materials and production equipment.

At present, the application of RFID technology in the 3C electronics industry has been quite mature. Its typical applications mainly include the following aspects: First, apply RFID technology to equipment that is difficult to automatically obtain data, realize the transparency and visualization of the production process, and eliminate the existence of discrete operation units and information islands. Secondly, establish product (batch) archives to track and manage the product life cycle. In addition, for the use of cutting tools in machine tools, industrial RFID readers are installed at each production node, and industrial RFID tags are installed on turnover equipment to avoid errors in mixed flow production, realize real-time docking of process guidance, and real-time sorting and distribution of defective products. In addition, in the logistics turnover link, by calibrating and tracking pallets, carriers, etc., location tracking and data collection are realized to improve logistics efficiency. RFID technology also provides data support for production process analysis, product quality analysis and backtracking.

For example, Shanghai Foxconn deployed RFID equipment and high-temperature RFID tags on its production lines according to the production rhythm, solving the problem of component production traceability in high-temperature environments and realizing digital management of the entire production process. HP used RFID tags and RFID readers in its printer factory in Brazil to obtain the production records and status of machines on the production line, reducing production line management costs and improving the efficiency of the assembly line.

(3) Home appliance industry

In the process of establishing and improving the quality system, home appliance manufacturers have higher requirements for product production, storage, transportation, sales and after-sales service. The full application of RFID technology can promote the automation of the production process of home appliance products, improve the level of quality control, optimize inventory management and logistics transportation, improve after-sales service and maintenance, thereby improving production efficiency, product quality and customer satisfaction, and achieving a higher level of intelligent manufacturing and business management.

In the home appliance manufacturing industry, typical application scenarios of RFID systems include the following aspects: First, it is used for production process management to realize the identification and tracking of raw materials, semi-finished products and finished products throughout the production line, monitor the status of the production line and the behavior of employees, and reduce manual identification costs and error rates. Secondly, it is used for quality control and inspection. By integrating RFID tags with sensors, an automated quality control and inspection process can be achieved. In addition, RFID technology can also be applied to inventory management and logistics tracking. Combined with the home appliance supply chain planning system, it can realize automated goods in and out of the warehouse and inventory counting, reducing problems such as misplacement, wrong delivery, damage and shipping errors. In addition, RFID technology can also be used for transportation management and logistics tracking. By attaching RFID tags to goods and transportation vehicles, the transportation status of goods can be tracked in real time. Finally, RFID technology can also be applied to after-sales service and maintenance. By quickly identifying product information and maintenance history, more intelligent home appliance manufacturing and management can be achieved. In addition, RFID technology can also be used for mixed-flow production material error prevention, mixed-flow line change alarm, real-time process guidance push, automatic diversion of defective products off the line, product traceability management and automated equipment docking.

(4) Lithium battery industry

In the lithium battery industry

In the lithium battery industry, the battery manufacturing process mainly includes three stages: pole piece production, battery cell production and battery assembly. These processes have been highly automated and may be located in clean rooms or dry rooms in certain cases. Therefore, RFID technology is widely used in the lithium battery industry. In the lithium battery industry, RFID technology can not only be used to identify positive and negative electrode materials and verify process steps, but also improve the visibility and traceability of the entire production process, and ensure the high quality of lithium-ion batteries through reliable testing and archiving. In addition, RFID technology can also be applied to the anti-fool application of pipeline docking in electrolyte warehouses to meet operational requirements such as explosion-proof and corrosion resistance. In addition, RFID technology can also be used for real-time remote monitoring of lithium batteries, which is convenient for fault diagnosis and repair and maintenance operations.

For example, Shandong Jinggong Electronics uses RFID technology for automatic data collection, realizes visualization and transparent management of production sites through electronic billboards, and realizes quality traceability of products throughout their life cycle with the help of technologies such as RFID. CATL has adopted industrial-grade explosion-proof area RFID solutions in all its production bases, realizing information docking and material error prevention between pipelines and tanks, avoiding potential risks such as material loss and safety accidents, and playing an important role in ensuring efficient operation. A US-funded electric vehicle company focuses on the production of electric pickup trucks. Through the combination of IO-Link master station module and substation module, the sensor information points of each Library-borrowing-machine-touch-query-intelligent-terminal-all-in-one-machine.html target='_blank'>workstation and process section on the battery module production line are collected nearby. In addition, through the high-frequency RFID read-write chip, the battery tray information on the trays of different process sections can be quickly read and saved for later traceability to ensure stable and orderly production.

(5) Photovoltaic industry

Since photovoltaics are a safe, clean and green energy source that has attracted much attention and attention, RFID technology has a wide range of application prospects in the photovoltaic industry. The production process of the photovoltaic industry is relatively complex, including silicon wafer inspection, surface texturing and pickling, diffusion bonding, dephosphorization of silicon glass, plasma etching and pickling, anti-reflection film coating, screen printing and rapid sintering. Among these processes, data collection and transparent transmission, production control and exception handling, cell quality monitoring and source traceability are particularly important. RFID technology plays an important role in the production process of photovoltaic panels. It can not only be used for cell sorting to achieve efficient sorting of solar monocrystalline silicon and polycrystalline silicon cells, but also for traceability management of photovoltaic silicon wafers and other materials. In addition, RFID technology can also monitor product quality in real time, realize unmanned and intelligent inbound and in-plant logistics, and improve the efficiency and management level of warehousing and logistics operations.

For example, in the 6GW high-efficiency PERC solar cell project of Jiangsu Runyang Yueda Photovoltaic Technology Co., Ltd., the entire intelligent workshop can trace product performance through RFID technology, MES system and AGV scheduling system. In the high-efficiency PERC battery production line built by a certain optoelectronic technology company in Hunan, RFID technology is used to obtain the process production data of monocrystalline silicon wafers, and provide real-time statistical data of pallet information to the MES system to realize the tracking and control of monocrystalline silicon wafers in the entire process, realize the intelligentization, visualization and transparency of the process, and improve production efficiency and product yield.

In addition, in the construction and operation of photovoltaic power stations, RFID technology can be used for intelligent management and monitoring of important equipment such as solar panels, inverters, and metering equipment, realize data collection, remote supervision and rapid maintenance, and improve the efficiency and reliability of power station operation and maintenance.

Of course, the application of RFID technology in the industrial field is far more than the photovoltaic industry. RFID technology also has a wide range of application scenarios in other sub-industries such as shipping, aviation, petroleum and petrochemicals, food and beverage, electricity, papermaking, robots and industrial mobile vehicles.