Data on

the Hook

APPLICATIONS RFID

Turck’s BL ident HF RFID system is

robust and fast enough to track and

trace the meat production in a

Chinese slaughterhouse.

Since meat products have become a standard in the

daily diet of Chinese consumers, the quality assurance

of meat production has become a key topic of discus-

sion in the Peoples’ Republic. The Chinese administra-

tion therefore decided to establish the supervision and

tracking of meat production in China. It supervises the

whole process from breeding, slaughtering, process-

ing, distribution to shops, and enables the origin of the

meat product to be traced so as to establish a food

safety pre-alarm mechanism.

The information is reported at municipal level so as

to enable the supervision authorities and the public to

trace and track the whole process on this platform. This

particularly applies to the slaughterhouse, the central

hub of many processes and difficult to monitor. The

animal arrives here alive and leaves in individual

packages. Due to the higher standards of hygiene here

compared to when the animals are reared or when

they are later packaged after slaughter, the require-

ments involved are much tougher. The slaughterhouse

determines the reliability of traceable meat produc-

tion, and is always the weakest segment in the entire

tracking management chain.

Customer requirements

To implement the tracking of the pork across all

process levels, every pig is provided with an electronic

earring containing the relevant data. However, the

location of the electronic earring on the pig’s ear is not

suitable for collecting data during operation. This data

is transferred to the database of the slaughterhouse

when the pig arrives. As every piece of pork is hung on

the same hook during the entire process it made sense

to fit an RFID tag on the hook.

Several read/write heads are installed beside the

production line, which can acquire the information of

every piece of pork along it. The continuous correct

identification of the pork depends on the correct

allocation of the data on the earring to the corre-

sponding tags on the hook. If quality issues are found

already at the initial examination in the slaughter-

house, the relevant information is recorded in the RFID

tag attached to the hook; and that piece of pork will

also be diverted to a special storage zone to prevent

any further processing.

The RFID tag TW-R10 is

reliably protected in

the metal hook against

mechanical damage. In

contrast to LF tags the

hook has not to be

slotted

QUICK READ

In a Chinese meat production plant Turck’s RFID

system is showing that BL ident with protection

to IP67 to IP69K can meet both the demanding

requirements of the sector for a robust design as

well as the fast read/write speeds required in the

meat processing industry. The tags are integrated

in the meat hooks so that they cannot be dam-

aged and nevertheless read reliably and quickly.

32 33more@TURCK 2 | 2016 |

The read/write heads read the data from the tag to

track production in real time. At the final packaging

stage, the pork information is transferred from the tag

to a database and linked with a tag on the packaging.

Large ranges and high speeds

Thee key requirement when selecting the BL ident

RFID system from Turck was its ability to read and

write eight bytes of data on the fly, i.e. within the usual

conveying speed. The project manager of integrator

Beijing Zhihengda Sci & Tech Co. Ltd. was also

impressed by the simplicity and flexibility of the

system, which can be parameterized easily without the

use of any function blocks. Besides the eight connect-

ed read/write heads, other analog or digital signals can

be connected to each BL67 gateway, acting as an RFID

interface. If additional control points are required, both

RFID modules as well as standard I/O modules can be

added. This considerably keeps the costs per node to

a minimum. The large range of the Turck read/write

heads protects tags and read/write heads from

mechanical damage.

LF and UHF solutions unsuitable

Alternative frequency bands such as LF and UHF RFID

solutions were not suitable for the application. The

frequency of the LF RFID was very similar to that of

the motors on site so that reliable RFID operation was

subject to considerable interference. Moreover, the

read/write distance of LF RFID was not enough. The

distance between RFID read/write head and tag is

only approximately 30 mm, which could not fulfill the

requirement at every station. The customer therefore

required a larger read/write range to prevent damage

to the tag or read/write head.

The UHF RFID products are also not suitable

because their range is too large and multiple tags are

read simultaneously by the read/write head. This is

particularly a problem at high speeds. The slaughter-

ing production line often passes the read/write heads

at high speeds of 600 pieces/hour, and so it was not

possible to determine which hook is passing through

the station. Turck also developed the TW-R10 tag

which can be embedded in the metal of the meat hook

and thus be provided with reliable protection from

damage. The increased read/write range also enables

the RFID readers to be fitted next to the conveyor belt

where they are mechanically protected. The read/write

heads are protected to IP69K and the tags to IP68. They

are thus resistant to moisture and water and are also

suitable for high pressure cleaning.

Turck tags can store 146 bytes. Thus all the neces-

sary information can be saved on the tag, which increas -

es safety in the event of a database error. Turck’s HF

system can detect the tags completely so that produc-

tion is not slowed down through the use of RFID.

Conclusion

The adoption of the Turck HF RFID solution can not

only solve all the existing problems, but also enhance

the reliability and accuracy of the data acquired, so as

to connect the entire tracking chain, raise production

efficiency greatly and guarantee meat product safety.

Author | Richard Lin is Senior Product Manager for RFID at

Turck China

Webcode | more21650e

TNSLR-Q42TWD with

protection class IP69K

is the ideal read/write

head for use in meat

production