Rockwell Collins uses RFID technology to meet customer needs

Over the past year, aircraft manufacturers have been ramping up RFID tagging solutions to meet the needs of Airbus and Boeing. Both companies have set a timeline for supplier marking of aircraft parts. To meet these needs, industrial and security printing technology company IFAST has released its second generation aerospace RFID solution to provide ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID system customers with a complete RFID printing and encoding solution.

As part of the solution, the company's software, RFID printers, handheld readers and tags are sold primarily to European companies that serve Airbus. Recently, sales of these products have begun to North American suppliers. For example: Rockwell Collins signed a contract to use an RFID tag solution in its business. This IFAST-supplied printing and encoding system will generate the labels needed to wirelessly identify and track Rockwell Collins' flight components.

IFAST manufactures 11 different styles of ATA Spec 2000 compliant RFID tags, 9 of which can be printed on rolls. Wesley Columbia, IFAST's global strategy and marketing manager, said this is the world's largest aerospace label product line. He said the company aims to meet a variety of needs, including tracking fuel lines, life jackets, oxygen generators and other devices.

Aviation RFID Solutions is a product of the IFAST SmartID business unit, which provides RFID printing, encoding and reading solutions. Columbia said IFAST has a long history in labeling for the aerospace industry. "Given IFAST's materials science and RFID expertise, the rollout of the RFID tags is very natural," he said. The company's dual-record tags can Store maintenance-related historical data. Authorized parties can access this information through the RFID tag. The company also launched a multi-record memory tag designed to store aircraft parts life and component maintenance history data.

In addition to air tags designed for security equipment, the company also offers a variety of flexible alloy metal tags and rigid metal tags. IFAST has also created a chemical-resistant surface on its labels, which means fluids and kerosene fuels will not damage the printed information on the labels.

IFAST’s aviation RFID solution also includes a desktop software to manage the printing and encoding of labels, and an RFID printer-encoder co-developed with Honeywell to print and encode labels. IFAST also provides a handheld card reader (Nordic ID or Zebra MC9190-Z reader), as well as a software for collecting read data.

Columbia said that so far, most customers are early adopters of RFID and are major suppliers to Airbus. In recent months, that customer base has expanded to North America to meet similar requests from Boeing.

Rockwell Collins plans to use the IFAST solution to open and close metal tags to identify aircraft parts. These labels can be used on items on both flat and curved surfaces. Rockwell Collins will use these tags into existing manufacturing workflow systems.

Some use cases for IFAST’s other customers include fuel lines, electronic components, passenger seats, oxygen generators and life jackets.

Some companies also plan to use RFID tags to collect and store the maintenance history and expiration management of oxygen generators.

Because life-saving equipment must be inspected and maintained regularly, RFID technology will provide airlines with a quick way to identify the location, condition, safety and age of safety equipment without touching the equipment. In some cases, the label needs to be attached to the metal can body, and in other cases, the label needs to be placed on the cylindrical shell.

In addition, aerospace RFID tags are used to track life jackets and other safety equipment. Without RFID technology, removing a life jacket through a barcode label would take more than an hour to look up the ID number. However, using RFID technology, this process is reduced to a matter of minutes.