Oct 29, 2012Following the testing of an RFID-enabled temperature-tracking device built into a shipping container, Southwest Airlines Cargo (Southwest Airlines' cargo services branch) has approved the device to be used by shippers on its aircraft. The solution is intended to provide data regarding the environmental conditions within a Cold Chain Technologies container of temperature-sensitive goods, such as vaccines or drugs, measured and recorded throughout the flight via an Intelleflex battery-assisted passive (BAP) RFID sensor. At the end of the flight, a handheld reader could be used to capture information from the tag or tags placed inside the box. In this way, users can view temperature data without opening containers at airports or other locations. The solution will be marketed by Cold Chain Technologies, a provider of thermal packaging products.
"Our goal is to make it easy for our customers to ship their time-critical and temperature-sensitive cargo," says Wally Devereaux, Southwest Airlines Cargo's director of sales and marketing. "To that end, we accept a variety of passive packaging solutions, and the Cold Chain Technologies package with the embedded Intelleflex temperature tag is a proven solution for maintaining 2 to 8 degree Celsius [35.6 degrees to 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit] temperatures for any journey on the Southwest network."
Certain foods, biomedical goods and pharmaceuticals are shipped within refrigerated containers, explains Lawrence K. Atupem Jr., the strategic account engineer at Cold Chain Technologies, which designs and manufactures insulated shipping containers. He notes, however, that narrow-body planes, such as 737s, cannot accommodate large refrigerated containers, which have active cooling systems. Southwest does not fly any wide-body planes. What's more, refrigerated containers are considerably more expensive than passive insulated containers (which lack refrigeration mechanisms), and are more expensive to transport due to their weight. Goods being shipped domestically often only travel for a day or two, Atupem says—and in such a scenario, a passive container, such as those provided by Cold Chain Technologies, suffices. Cold gel packs, also manufactured by Cold Chain Technologies, are typically placed within the passive container in order to keep goods cool.
Southwest already offers a cargo-tracking solution known as Cargo Companion, for customers that ship goods on its planes. Cargo Companion employs GPS devices that transmit location data and other information via cellular connections. The GPS devices are affixed outside the container, or can be placed inside, and also measure temperatures within the box.
For the pilot, a Cold Chain team packed cans of water in a KoolTemp HP-76-RFG container, measuring approximately 16 inches by 12 inches by 12 inches, and then placed two TMT-8500 tags in along with them. The goal was to track whether temperature data could be read through the insulated container's walls, and whether the container maintained the goods at a target of 2 degrees to 5 degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees to 41 degrees Fahrenheit). Once the container was closed in Dallas, Cold Chain Technologies' staff used the HMR-9090 handheld to read the temperature data from both tags through the box. According to Payne, it was a warm August day—the type of conditions that could pose some challenges for maintaining the correct temperature within the box. The container was loaded on a Southwest flight to Austin, and was then sent to Los Angeles, after which it was removed from that flight and put on another bound for San Jose. When it arrived at San Jose later that same day, Cold Chain Technologies read the tags via another handheld reader by sending a wake-up signal, after which the tags reflected that signal back as a backscatter. This process differs from the RF transmission beaconing of an active tag, Payne says, which could be of concern to the Federal Aviation Administration FAA.
The temperature recorded inside the box was 2.02 degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit) when it left Dallas, and 4.02 degrees Celsius (39.2 degrees Fahrenheit) when the tags were read in San Jose. The sensors captured temperature readings every 15 minutes, so the sensor data provided a history of the temperature throughout the flights.
"Everything worked fine," Payne states, adding that the data could be checked more frequently at other airports, if workers had handheld readers onsite. For the pilot project, the data was simply collected on the handheld. However, customers could also utilize Intelleflex's Zest 1.0 platform to receive, store and share read data with approved parties (see Intelleflex Launches Self-Contained Reader to Bring Visibility to Remote Sites).
The pilot with Intelleflex and Cold Chain Technologies, Devereaux says, illustrates that the system shows promise for Southwest for customers that would like to ship goods within a passive container. "Passive packaging solutions like Cold Chain Technologies' play a key role in helping customers ship medical and pharmaceutical products on the Southwest network," he notes. "These types of packaging solutions are much more affordable than active transport containers, and they come in a variety of sizes that fit our fleet of aircraft."
In addition to partnering with Cold Chain Technologies, Intelleflex is working with Rehrig Pacific Co., a manufacturer of reusable plastic pallets crates and containers. This week, Rehrig Pacific announced that it would be incorporating Intelleflex tags into its products in order to improve the management of cold chain operations for shippers.
Rehrig Pacific is marketing the solution to its customers in the food and pharmaceutical industry, which will enable them to capture sensor data regarding conditions for temperature-sensitive goods throughout the supply chain, according to Kaley Parkinson, Rehrig Pacific's national sales manager. He adds that users can also write and store data about the goods on the tag itself, which could be helpful for pharmaceutical companies in complying with e-pedigree requirements.
