Fortune 100 automotive parts supplier uses RFID

July 2001 Data Acquisition & Telemetry

In early 1999, Visteon Corporation's Nashville Glass Plant, which produces windshields for the Ford Motor Company, was faced with a dilemma. The current method of tracking their windshields - a magnetic coding system - had reliability problems and, more importantly, had become obsolete. Visteon realised that they needed a more reliable and flexible system for tracking their windshield parts. The difficulty facing Visteon was that any new system would have to survive temperatures of up to 150°C and the high pressure during the windshield autoclaving and forming process.

Lin Taylor, Process and Controls Engineer at Visteon Corporation, explains, "We were using an old magnetic tracking system that was no longer available. We had considered using a queue in the programming of our PLC, but that would have unnecessarily increased the size of the PLC, as well as making the programming too complex. That is when we decided to use Escort Memory Systems' RFID solution."

Visteon decided on the EMS HMS827 reader/writers, the HMS150HT (high-temperature) passive read/write tags and the CM52 remote I/O interface modules to communicate to the PLC.

The HMS150HT passive read/write tags are mounted directly to the racks carrying the glass, and travel with the racks through the entire process. The HMS150HT tags can easily handle the temperatures and pressures inherent in the autoclaving process. The HMS827 reader/writers are attached to the conveyors that transport the glass racks. The HMS827 writes the glass type information of each windshield to the tags prior to autoclaving. After autoclaving, the racks are routed to their correct finishing destinations based on the tag information detected by the 'decision point' reader/writers.

Regarding the performance of EMS products, Lin says, "The system has absolutely accomplished the intended system design. It is simple to use. We write the glass type info to the tags and, no matter what happens during the process, the info is still there". Lin adds, "The EMS RFID solution we used has a lot more capability than we are currently using. Right now, we are only differentiating between two lines of information - an 'A' part and a 'B' part - but, if we ever needed to, the potential to expand the system is there. We would not have to install a whole new system which, ultimately, saves us time and money".

Visteon Corporation is the world's second largest automotive supplier with $19,4 bn in annual sales for 1999, 84 production facilities, and sales to 18 of the 20 largest vehicle manufacturers. Visteon produces components and systems such as climate control, chassis systems and commercial glass that represent over 40% of the total material value of an average vehicle. This presence ranks Visteon 87th on the Fortune 500 list.

Escort Memory Systems

(031) 564 2542

[email protected]

www.ems-rfid.com

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