BCDS Identification Technologies has written about how
Newmont Mining integrated Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to track their fixed assets in a rugged and harsh environment.
The mining company faced a problem where many types of equipment and materials needed to be labelled with an asset tags. The environment in which the assets needed to be tracked was dirty, and the asset label was not guaranteed to be visible.
The RFID transponder tag was identified as the ideal solution in the face of these conditions. When it is encapsulated in PET plastic, it can withstand low and high temperatures in excess of 100 degrees Celsius.
According to the solutions provider, the tags also support standard non-proprietary protocols, allowing them to be read by any hardware from various RFID manufacturers.
The tags can be read without line of sight, and can be used even when attached to metal surfaces or covered in liquid. Psion Workabout portable data terminals equipped with RFID reader modules and loaded with asset tracking software were used to track the tags attached to the assets.
The software can receive the asset register file from any host system capable of exporting a text file. The RFID transponder is then read to check the status of the assets. When the auditing is done, the data is uploaded back onto the host and reports generated.
