Jul 14, 2010Vedanta Aluminium Ltd. (VAL), a subsidiary of metals and mining company Vedanta Resources PLC, is employing an EPC Gen 2 ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID system to boost efficiency and prevent theft at its power plant and aluminum smelter in Jharsuguda, Orissa, in eastern India.
The system helps Vedanta protect itself from pilferage of coal or ore, the company reports, and makes the movement of the hundreds of contractors and employees who pass into and out of the facility every day more efficient. The EPC Gen 2 system replaces a previous RFID system in which ID cards with embedded RFID tags needed to be positioned extremely close to a reader, forcing drivers to stop their vehicles and hand their cards over to be read by the security staff.
The Vedanta site produces 500,000 tons of aluminum annually, but also includes a 1,215-megawatt power plant, for which contractors deliver truckloads of coal. The identities of the driver and his or her truck must be confirmed before each vehicle is authorized to enter the facility. Then, the truck must be weighed twice—once upon arriving and again when leaving—to determine how much coal was delivered.
The company sought a solution that would allow the trucks and employees to travel through the gate quickly without creating queues at security. It also wanted to be able to provide real-time data regarding which individuals were at the site at any particular time, as well as the amount of coal they delivered.
With Vedanta's previous RFID system, the tags embedded in the ID cards were difficult to read, says R.K. Shantosh, the assistant manager of Vedanta's IT division, and all data—such as driver and company information—was stored on the card's tag itself, rather than in a back-end system. As such, Shantosh explains, the system did not provide the company's management with vehicle arrival and departure data. So in March of this year, he says, the firm contracted for a new RFID solution, which it began installing in April.
On average, 3,000 trucks enter the area each day, bringing coal and bauxite. Employees also enter the complex on a daily basis. In the first phase of deploying the new system, Vedanta mounted RFID tags on the windshields of cars and trucks, in order to track employees and coal deliveries en route to the power plant.
Because of the highly metallic environment—including the presence of metal in the windshield glass itself, to make the windshield more rugged—obtaining a sufficient read range for each tag to be interrogated by a reader mounted at a gate was especially challenging. A read range of up to 50 feet from cars traveling up to 21 miles per hour was accomplished by customizing the reader, which has a built-in antenna. The transmission between the antenna and the interrogator is digital, rather than the traditional analog signal through a cable, the company explains, thereby resulting in a higher-quality transmission.
Within the RFID software, the ID number of each windshield tag is linked with the name of the contractor company, vehicle description and driver, and that data is then sent to an LED screen display located at the site's entrance and exit gates. When a vehicle arrives at the gate, the security officer manning that location need only look at the screen and compare the data displayed, including a picture of the authorized driver, with the actual vehicle and driver at the gate. That individual is then either allowed or denied entrance.
The second phase of the deployment, currently undergoing installation, will incorporate the weighing of cargo to ensure the accuracy of invoices from, and payments to, contractors. Vedanta installed a weighbridge that links to the RFID portal through which each vehicle must pass. The scale measures the gross weight as the truck arrives, and then the tare weight as it departs, and links those weights with the ID number on the vehicle's windshield tag. In this way, Vedanta indicates, the company can determine the size of the load, and ensure that the entire amount was dumped at the site.
The final phase will incorporate an image capture of the license plate number of each vehicle entering the facility, which will also be linked to the RFID tag's ID number. This will add another layer of security to ensure the correct truck has arrived. According to the company, the date for the addition of that functionality has yet to be determined.
Since the first phase of the deployment was installed, Vedanta reports, the system has reduced the entrance time for contractors from an average of 5 to 10 minutes, down to 20 to 25 seconds. By making the entrance gate and weighing waits shorter, the firm expects to see a significant reduction in the vehicles' fuel consumption.
"We've been using the system for three months, and it's been very smooth," Shantosh states. "We're able to get real-time data about the number of trucks inside [the facility], and we can plan our traffic in the future accordingly."
