October 2019

| APPLICATIONS | layman’s terms. After the spray process, the tags are read either by passing through an area with a fixed set of readers or manually with a handheld reader. The passive sensors require no battery power as they use energy harvested from the probing signal to transmit the presence (or absence) of water. On the production floor, the RF readers can immediately indicate the presence of a leak in a specific product and can even indicate the location of the leak, based upon which sensor(s) are indicating the presence of moisture. In smart factories where the end product moves on a conveyor, the presence of a leak may then cause the product to be moved to another conveyor that takes the product to another area of the factory so that rework may be done to eliminate the leak before being put back into the main production line. Through aggregating leak data over time, extremely valuable feedback can be provided and dissected in a number of ways. This data can either be analysed locally or a connected smart factory can relay the data via the IIoT to other locations, such as a design weaknesses and upgrade product designs as well as avoiding the issue in future products. At the heart of the smart factory concept is product and process improvement through the use of intelligent systems and data analysis, often with multiple manufacturing sites sharing and consolidating data via the www.smartmachinesandfactories.com October 2019 | 35 | Figure 1: The SPS moisture tags come in a variety of sizes for easy fixing to products and are Powered by Axzon’s Magnus integrated circuits headquarters or R&D centre that may need to take action based on the data. Simple analysis over time will indicate whether there is an issue with a particular product model or assembly process. Systems could also drill down to individual shifts or even operators, perhaps finding areas of consistent human error. The consolidated data can also be used by the research and development function to identify Figure 2: The RFM5126 system is applicable to all types of production line Figure 3: Data can be analysed directly from the production floor IIoT. The RFM5126 Moisture Intrusion Detection System provides a modern and intelligent approach to leak detection by eliminating operator error during inspection and providing valuable data that allows the assembly process to be analysed and improved as well as identifying possible areas of weakness in the product itself, or even persistent operator error. By implementing this system manual inspection labour is almost wholly eliminated, inspection is more accurate, leaks are not missed, warranty expenses are reduced, customer satisfaction is increased and brand reputations are protected.