Seagate increases production quality and efficiency by installing radio frequency identification (RFID) products from Escort Memory Systems.
Seagate is recognised as the world's largest manufacturer of disk drives, magnetic disks and read-write heads, an innovator in tape drives and a leading development of software enterprise information management. The US$7 bn Silicon Valley giant employs 86 000 people and has numerous production sites worldwide. One such site is the Seagate Recording Media Group (RMG) in Milpitas, California.
The RMG facility is responsible for producing disks which are used by the media for storing data in Seagate's disk drives. Aim Khan, IT Director, explains that the RMG facility in Milpitas manufactures approximately 100 000 disks per day. He adds that "Globally, Seagate manufactures millions of disks per year. With customers such as HP, Dell and Compaq, chances are that your home or office PC contains a Seagate disk drive inside."
Recently, Khan was given the task of implementing a US$2m 'product traceability' project. Traceability means tracking materials, process and equipment used for manufacturing each disk. The project goal was to ensure each media disk is monitored at every step of the production process. This meant monitoring the thousands of cassettes which are the carriers for the media disks as they are transported throughout the production facility.
Khan noted that "Each cassette is tracked and identified as it moves through the various processes. It takes 48 hours for the cassette to complete all of the approximately 20 processes. With thousands of cassettes undergoing critical processes simultaneously, over a fairly long period of time, it was imperative that a durable and reliable product traceability system be implemented."
Khan stated that initially Seagate used paper travellers with bar code labels for tracking and identifying the thousands of cassettes which are moved around the RMG facility each day. Traceability was not accurate because tracking using paper travellers involved human intervention. In addition, the issue of paper travellers contaminating the Class 10 clean-room environments was a prominent concern. "Particle count is a major issue in the processing of media disks," said Khan. "Typically, a factory environment contains hundreds of thousands of particles per cubic metre of air. At our RMG facility, however, certain areas have particle counts as low as 800 particles (0,5 µm or less) per cubic metre (a Class 10 environment), so it is critical that sources of contamination be eliminated. When you remove a paper traveller you remove a contamination concern," advised Khan.
Along with addressing the contamination concerns, Seagate wanted the tracking and identification system to store production information, (eg completion of various processing stages), on the cassette itself. The ID system had to be able to confirm that each cassette, before entering a given processing centre, had successfully been processed through all the preceding operations.
After an in-depth analysis of the various automatic identification capture technologies in the marketplace, Seagate decided that radio frequency identification, or RFID, was the solution. RFID involves placing a tag onto a product or product carrier and communicating data by means of radio frequency signals from the antenna (or reader/writer) to the tag. In Seagate's application, the RF tag is mounted onto the cassette which houses the media disks.
Next, Seagate was faced with the challenge of evaluating RFID companies to determine which provider would offer the most reliable products and support. Of the six selected candidates, Seagate chose Escort Memory Systems' RFID products. Escort Memory Systems is a Silicon Valley firm with a long history of producing innovative RFID products and a strong reputation for ensuring that each of its automation projects is a success.
In Seagate's decision to adopt Escort Memory Systems (EMS) field-proven RFID products, certain benefits became apparent. The tags provide substantial RFID read/write range, are easy to mount, small (only 8 mm in diameter), do not require batteries or contain moving parts and, most importantly, will not contaminate the clean-room environment, since the tags are hermetically sealed.
Another benefit of Escort Memory Systems' RFID for Seagate is the ability for the antenna heads and tags to be submerged in de-ionised water. The patented HMS827 passive reader/writer antenna heads and the HMS108 read/write tags can easily communicate in this environment, even if submerged for extended periods of time.
"With an industry leader such as Seagate adopting our RFID products," notes Mark Nicholson, "our products are quickly becoming the standard RFID system within the disk drive industry." Khan concurs that "The product traceability project was implemented to make a better quality product and Escort Memory Systems' RFID products have been an integral part of this equation."
As the disk drive industry enters a period of intense competition, industry leader Seagate once again widens the production efficiency gap by adopting new technologies - such as RFID from Escort Memory Systems. Seagate is currently examining installing Escort Memory Systems' RFID in several other locations worldwide.
Escort Memory Systems
(031) 564 2542/52
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