Utilize RFID technology to achieve real-time production control and traceability

Founded in Milan in 1973, the company is known for the production of specialty paints and powder coatings used in a variety of industries, with applications including anti-graffiti, high temperature and zinc-rich primers. Its distribution network covers the entire Europe, with customers in Belgium, France, Germany, Bulgaria, Poland, Greece, Czech Republic, Russian Federation, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Ukraine. With its research and development laboratories, the company continues to innovate and improve product performance, formulations and production technologies to stay ahead of the market.

Pulverit's latest innovation is the introduction of RFID traceability as part of its production control overhaul. The new production control system now covers the entire production line, ensuring full compliance with production quality parameters. With intelligent automation, technicians and managers can receive and monitor updates in real time for each batch in production through every step of the process. Customer service has also benefited, with update progress now shared with customers via the Pulverit web portal.

Industry 4.0 production control system

Conical steel container that collects and holds powdered products during production

The new production control system allows operators to assign production batches to specific production cones during the filling stage, monitor weight and other production parameters on a touch screen, and automatically report any anomalies.

Promixon Mixer by Pulverit

During the mixing phase, the system uses an RFID Reader installed on the Promixon mixer to identify the batch being processed and sends all values collected by the mixer's PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) to the middleware.

Finally, during the output phase, an RFID reader on the floor identifies the cones being transported and displays on the screen all data related to the contents of the batch. Likewise, any anomalies are logged and notified via real-time alerts. From a design perspective, this phase faces some technical challenges related to calibration and positioning of the reader in order to read only the cones in transit.

Industrial IoT Solutions

Pulverit works closely with a number of industrial IoT experts, such as RFID system integrator NGWay. TraceToo was chosen because of its unique experience in automatic identification of supply chains. Xerafy's RTI Trak metal-resistant tags were selected for their proven durability in manufacturing environments, as well as their superior read performance and high density of metal elements.