Archive for January 11th, 2012
RFID Aids Fueling for Canadian Bus Operator
Coast Mountain Bus Co. is installing a TagMaster RFID solution as part of its fuel-management system from Coencorp, to identify buses and permit fueling with appropriate fluids.
Jan. 10, 2012—Coast Mountain Bus Co. (CMBC), located in British Columbia, Canada, recently completed a pilot of an RFID-based automated fuel-management system at one of its fueling stations that authenticates each of the company’s busses, allows drivers to fill up their vehicles with the appropriate fuel and stores data regarding fuelings and engine performance, including idle times and miles traveled. Based on that pilot’s success, the company is now installing the RFID tags and readers at six fueling locations, in order to manage the fueling of its entire bus fleet. The system includes RFID tags and readers supplied by TagMaster North America, integrated with the FuelZone Transit fuel-management system provided by Montreal automated solutions firm Coencorp.
By April of this year, the bus company reports, each vehicle will carry a semi-passive 2.4 MHz TagMaster RFID tag that transmits its unique ID number to a reader at the station, prompting the release of locks for specific dispensers of fuel and other products (such as transmission or windshield-washer fluid) appropriate for that particular vehicle. At the same time, a Coencorp device known as an engine diagnostic port, or Vehicle Data Unit (VDU), uses its built-in omnidirectional RF transceiver to transmit data regarding the engine’s use history and mileage, and a record is stored in the FuelZone software, along with the vehicle’s fueling history. Although the VDU broadcasts a unique ID number, the footprint of its omnidirectional signal is too wide for the system to identify the specific fuel lane in which a bus is parked.
According to Derek Leach, CMBC’s maintenance planning manager, the bus company plans to be using RFID at all six of its fueling stations in the British Columbia area by April, for its approximately 300 buses.
Coencorp has been providing fuel-management solutions to transit companies, as well as other firms maintaining fleets of vehicles, for approximately two decades, says Ali Tavassoli, Coencorp’s president—and one of its clients for many of those years has been CMBC. The Coencorp system provides access to fuel for drivers after they input a password or swipe a card, and also stores a record of that transaction. With the TagMaster RFID technology, however, that process can be automated, indicating to the system any time that a bus enters within read range of the readers installed at the fueling station. In addition, once a vehicle stops at the fueling lane, within about 300 feet of the FuelZone receiver, data pertaining to its engine functionality could be loaded wirelessly into Coencorp’s software solution.
Several years ago, Coast Mountain Bus Co. had installed a system involving active RFID tags to identify buses arriving at a fueling station, which CMBC then incorporated into the FuelZone system. However, the company found that readers too often picked signals from tags on buses in neighboring fueling lanes, thereby making RFID reads unreliable.
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French rivals to compete on wind farm bids
EDF and GDF Suez, the rival French utilities, are going head-to-head in a battle to secure the lion’s share of a €10bn project to build up to 600 wind turbines off the coast of Normandy and Brittany.
Three industrial consortia led by EDF, GDF Suez and Spain’s Iberdrola each submitted bids on Wednesday night for a share of five offshore wind farms planned by France, the country’s first, in one of the biggest developments of its kind in Europe.
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The turbines are the first part of an attempt by Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, to catch up with large off-shore wind developments in the UK and Germany and to cut his country’s heavy dependence on atomic power.
Mr Sarkozy has been termed “Mr All-Nuclear” because of his staunch support for EDF, the atomic power group that supplies three-quarters of French electricity, even after last year’s nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan.
However, he is eager that preliminary contracts for the 3,000MW wind development are awarded before presidential elections in April as he seeks to bolster his green credentials and show he is investing in industry at a time of rising French unemployment and stagnant growth.
That has drawn criticism from Germany, whose Machine Tool Builders’ Association warned France on Wednesday against “favouritism” towards domestic turbine makers by choosing consortia that will build factories at home.
Siemens, a German turbine manufacturer, is part of the GDF bid to build a 500MW wind farm off the coast of northern Brittany, where it is competing with bids from EDF and Iberdrola, whose turbines would be made by Alstom or Areva, two French suppliers.
Alstom and Areva have promised to build factories in the region and create thousands of jobs should they be successful, sparking accusations from Germany that they will be preferred. The French energy ministry denied the charge.
In total, GDF is bidding for four of the five farms, the same number as EDF. Iberdrola is bidding for the two Brittany sites. EDF and GDF will compete head-to-head on three of the bids. EDF is teamed with Alstom on all its bids, while GDF will work with Areva on three and Siemens on one. Iberdrola is also teamed with Areva.
The competition is particularly important for Areva, which makes atomic reactors but is trying to expand in renewable energy after the Fukushima crisis hurt its nuclear business.
Analysts said the wind development, to provide 1.7 per cent of French electricity, fell far short of UK and German projects. France plans to build another 3,000MW of capacity this decade off the coast of its western Vendée region, but Germany is planning 10,000MW of offshore wind power by 2020 and the UK 18,000MW.
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RBS Technologies announces annual in-mold seminar
RBS Technologies will hold its annual in-mold labeling (IML) and decorating seminar, the ‘ABC’s of IML: A Basic Course’ on 27 March 2012 at the DoubleTree Hotel and Conference Center Chicago North Shore, Illinois.
Now in its 23rd year, this seminar is an introductory IML and in-mold decorating (IMD) course designed for those considering entry into the IML and IMD market, as well as a refresher course for more experienced current participants in the field. It is updated yearly to provide a basic grounding in IML and IMD as well as the fundamentals of extrusion blow molding, injection IML, the in-mold process, production of in-mold labels, current markets, functions across the IML value chain and future growth opportunities. The seminar covers all aspects of IML of packaging as well as IMD of durable products.
For additional details and registration information contact Ron Schultz at RBS Technologies by phone to +1(480) 473-0301, fax to +1(480) 473-0456 or email to info@rbstechnologies.com.
RBS Technologies is a consulting firm serving the flexible packaging, labeling and converting industries and their suppliers.
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