Ortrander Ironworks Rolls Out Real-Time Location System

Eleven interrogators are affixed to the ceiling of a 2,500-square-meter (27,000-square-foot) production facility used to clean iron parts after they are poured. The facility is one of three that will be outfitted with the forklift-tracking system. The RTLS captures the signals and unique ID numbers sent out by the forklift tags, then analyzes the forklift's location within the warehouse. Since the tags are affixed at different points on the forklift, the system can also determine in which direction the vehicle is moving.

Ortrander is now implementing the passive UHF RFID application to track containers, with work expected to be finished on the solution by mid-year. The containers are drop-side mesh containers on pallets, which Ortrander uses to move around the parts it casts. A passive RFID tag will be affixed to the long side of each container's base. After being filled with cast parts, the containers will be transported to the warehouse and stored temporarily in unmarked stacks on the floor, or in storage racks. They will then be moved to different stations, such as the cleaning station, and stored temporarily.

Holger Hartweg

The forklifts carrying active RFID tags will also have UHF RFID readers and antennas to identify the UHF RFID tags on the mesh cages. Ortrander and Fraunhofer ALI are still working out which types of tags and tag casings they will employ. When a driver picks up a container, the forklift's interrogator will identify that container's UHF RFID tag, and the system will note which container was moved, and at what time. This information will then be combined with location information from the forklift to let managers know the location to which the container was moved.

At present, Ubisense is integrating scales on the forklifts to weigh containers. The system will calculate a load's weight by subtracting the weight of the empty container (such information is stored in the database) from that of the loaded container. This data will then be used to help determine the container's contents, since batches can comprise a variety of different castings.

Bernd Williams-Boock, Ortrander's CEO, says his company will benefit by being able to locate particular items more quickly, and by having a better overview of production. "We will be able to calculate what can be delivered to the customer, and control the sets of castings," he says. "We will know if we have the right 30 parts for a particular set [of castings]."

According to Hartweg, the RFID project was originally slated to be finished in early 2009, but other production-related projects at the iron foundry took priority. He now expects the system to be fully implemented by summer 2009.