Aircraft Parts Maker to Use EPC Tags to Track Moisture Exposure

Each box, measuring 2 to 4 feet in height, can hold several hundred trays or reels, each containing 16 to 56 components. All trays and reels will be tagged. The reader will be located in the back of the dry box, Hughes says, "and its [read] range should not continue past the front of the box." Because the read range is short and there is no place to put trays or reels near the dry boxes once they have been removed, she explains, there is no risk of the reader capturing a tag's RF transmissions after the tray or reel to which is attached has been taken out of the dessicator.

After all components on a particular tray have been used and sent to be baked, Hughes says, the tag can be reprogrammed and reused with the tray. The researchers were able to keep costs low because they developed their own software and utilized a hardware package provided by SkyeTek at a reduced price.

Latham says she and co-researchers Jesse Green, the team's technical leader, and Jeremy Wright, the project leader, were aware of a similar moisture-tracking RFID system sold by Cogiscan. However, she says, the Cogiscan system was more expensive than the $2,000 budget stipulated by Universal Avionics and offered advanced features that were unnecessary for this application.

According to Hughes, the system the students developed stayed within the $2,000 budget, with enough hardware to initially track trays in one dry box. "Universal has been very positive throughout the process and has been really eager [to use it]," she says. "I think this will be a great application."

Hughes estimates the system will save the company about $5,280 annually in manpower that was previously spent recording times on labels, as well as about $20,000 that is currently spent baking components that have gotten too close to their shelf life and must be baked before they become unusable and need to be discarded. The baking process, Hughes says, is a high cost to the company and not always necessary if the parts are not allowed to sit outside the vacuum bag or dry box for too long.

"It's going to be a huge time-savings, and its going to be a huge savings of money," Hughes says. "The U of A kids have done a fabulous job on this project. They've impressed their professors and us." Universal Avionics intends to expand from one dry box to at least three, she notes, depending on the success of the initial deployment.