RFID Tracking of Battery Raw Materials with OPC UA
RFID system from a single source guarantees reliable processes – even with high throughput and complex and varying processes
The production of batteries involves the use of different raw materials for coating the electrodes. Cobalt, iron, nickel or cadmium are ground very finely, mixed and then coated with carbon black to optimize the energy output, capacity and charging speed of the power storage units.
The various process steps such as drying, grinding, mixing and coating must be carried out in the correct order with the right machines, because the degree of grinding, mixing ratios and other process parameters vary according to the battery type and quality class.
Your Benefits
- No interface conflicts thanks to single source solution
- OPC UA integration for seamless data transfer from the field to the ERP
- Ready for future cloud implementations in accordance with OPC-UA
- High availability thanks to seamless IP67 solution
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Identifying primary products improves process reliability
It is therefore recommended that the containers in which the primary products are passed through the process are automatically identified. This ensures that all process steps are carried out with the correct equipment in the intended sequence. Identification with RFID ensures an error-free production process and allows all process steps to be documented for possible checks. It also makes it possible to ensure and verify that the containers have been cleaned as intended.
RFID data via OPC UA directly to the ERP
Since the production steps are not managed by a PLC or a control system in many production plants, but are created directly in the ERP system, identification systems must communicate directly with the ERP system to secure the production process. OPC UA has proven to be the ideal communication interface for this purpose. This standard is both a communication protocol and semantics for processing production-relevant data. OPC UA is “understood” by IT systems as well as by compatible machines and systems of the OT.
Turck's RFID system offers outstanding performance in the application with TNLR-Q80 read/write heads for the harshest environments and with IP67 protection. Your data is transferred to the ERP system via the TBEN-L-4RFID RFID interface using OPC UA.
Special tags are used here for mounting on metal, which guarantees the maximum reliability of the identification processes, since RFID communication in metallic environments can be prone to errors due to possible reflections. In this application, only the ID of the tag is read out in order to then assign the correct information via a database. As a full range supplier, Turck offers a seamless system from tags to read/write devices and connection cables to RFID interfaces, right through to qualified support. Communication problems caused by multivendor solutions in the system can thus be reliably prevented.