May 18, 2012—The Panama City Division (PCD) of the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) has developed and demonstrated an RFID-based cargo-tracking solution that it says is poised to provide a 3,000 percent return on investment by eliminating the need to perform manual inventory checks. NSWC supplies research, development, test and evaluation services for surface-ship systems and subsystems. The solution was designed for a littoral combat ship (LCS), a small surface vessel intended for operations close to shore. By affixing passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tags to tools stored in metal cabinets within containers loaded onto such vessels, NSWC PCD was able to capture location data regarding those items in real time—even when a vessel was out to sea—using satellite-communications to transmit RFID data.
Smaller than the U.S. Navy’s other frigates, littoral combat ships is serve a variety of functions, including moving cargo to and from port facilities. The two LCS vessels currently in use by the Navy are loaded with steel containers containing cabinets used to store a wide variety of tools, such as wrenches and ropes being moved between other vessels and the port. Without an RFID solution, the Navy—in order to ensure that all tools are accounted for—must assign its sailors to conduct manual inventory counts of all items within the containers, either on the vessel or at the port. This can take as much as 32 hours to complete every time it’s done, says Ryan Mabry, the NSWC PCD computer engineer who developed the software for the RFID-based solution.
It is not easy work, Mabry notes. Sailors often must stand in a tight enclosure (an 8-foot-by-20-foot container), manually checking items on paper. However, he reports, that time was reduced to approximately two minutes using radio frequency identification.
The solution, known as the Mission Package Automated Inventory Information Inventory System (MPAIIS), consists of EPC Gen 2 passive UHF RFID tags attached to items, as well as readers installed within containers, satellite-communications technology to transmit RFID read data to the back-end system—or a Wi-Fi connection, when a vessel is in the port—and custom-built software to manage read data and issue directives to the interrogators to capture RFID reads remotely.
NSWC PCD began looking into an RFID solution in 2008. Testing, research and development of the system extended to June 2011, when an onboard demonstration was conducted. The researchers are now awaiting funding so they can continue the development for additional containers.
The group conducted a series of tests at NSWC’s laboratory facility located in Panama City, Fla., reading 50 different types of active, passive or semi-active tags placed in various areas of the cabinets, as well as moving reader antennas around a prototype container in order to achieve maximum coverage. Instead of creating a system that reads tags attached to tools passing through an RFID reader portal as they are loaded into containers, NSWC wanted readers and antennas to provide real-time information, on demand, by being built directly into the containers. The software was designed in-house to read the tags’ ID numbers, link that data to specific inventory items and provide a full list of which items were in a specific cabinet within a particular container, as well as which were missing, whenever a vessel left the port destined for another vessel, returned with a different load or had its cargo swapped out.
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A recovery in margins at its US transmission businesses helped lift underlying profits at National Grid, as inflation-pegged increases in returns on its regulated assets drove up returns in its core UK market.
Steve Holliday, chief executive, reporting results for the year to March, said National Grid had driven up operating margins at businesses along the US eastern seaboard by 50 basis points to 8.8 per cent. That was in spite of having to absorb £116m in costs to deal with mayhem caused to supplies by hurricane Irene last August and the costs of early snow storms over the winter. The company, which derives more than a third of its operating profits from US businesses, is in negotiations over future price-setting agreements in Rhode Island and upstate New York.
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In December it lost out in bidding to continue to operate Long Island’s electricity system after 2013.
Mr Holliday said National Grid expected to be able to claw back the costs of rectifying stricken US supply networks in a deal with US regulators over the next couple of years.
The impact of the harsh weather and strengthening of sterling pushed pre-tax profits at National Grid down from £2.62bn to £2.56bn. But the company said that operating profit rose 9 per cent after adjusting for currency movements, lumpy timing of payments and the impact of the US storms.
In the UK, Mr Holliday said attention was on the outcome of the Energy Bill set out in the Queen’s Speech that will set the parameters for two decades of investment in upgrading the UK’s power generation and distribution system.
Mr Holliday said early decisions on the UK’s strategy of energy mix, and regulatory certainty on returns for investors would be required to ensure National Grid was able deliver a “motorway system” of power transmission from source to home and factory.
It has scheduled £31bn of spending in the UK on energy transmission and distribution infrastructure over the next two decades, with initial proposals on the future regulation of returns on UK regulated assets due out in July.
Revenue fell from £14.3bn to £13.8bn. The full-year dividend rose 8 per cent to 39.28p, payable from earnings per share of 56.8p. National Grid shares rose 9.5p to 675p.
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A new system allows the black mask layer in flexo CTP to be applied by inkjet. Andy Thomas reports
Black mask ablation has become the dominant way of imaging digital flexographic and letterpress plates. The plate is pre-coated with a black layer which is burned away (ablated) in the image areas by a laser, followed by conventional plate exposure and processing.
But at Labelexpo Europe a start-up company called Digiflex demonstrated a new approach which uses a high definition inkjet to print the black mask directly onto a standard flexo, letterpress or analog dry-offset plate.
There are three main elements to consider when using inkjet ink as a mask to prevent UV exposure light from reaching the plate:
- Optical density of the ink in the UV range (over 4.5)
- Smooth operation of the print-head, eliminating any nozzle clogging or misdirection of the droplet
- High print quality on top of any non-porous flexo plate, eliminating any ink clustering or bleeding
The desired optical density is achieved by adding UV absorbent elements to the ink in order to ensure high UV light blocking. Since no solid particles are used in the ink formulation, there is no source for nozzle clogging, and Digiflex says smooth jetting ‘is ensured throughout the system’s lifetime’.
The main obstacle preventing earlier pioneers from reaching the high print quality required to print a negative mask on top of the photo-polymeric plate was that inkjet ink is very dilute and non-viscous. Jetting it on top of a non-porous substrate often caused print quality failures.
DigiFlex overcame this difficulty by developing its own unique bi-component reactive ink approach.
The flexo plate is coated with a special primer layer which contains a reactant ‘A’. The ink, jetted on top of the plate contains a reactant ‘B’. When the ink droplet hits the plate surface, chemical reactants ‘A’ and ‘B’ both react instantaneously to cause the gelation of the ink droplet. The resulting highly viscose ink droplet causes no print quality deterioration and behaves almost like a conventional offset ink. This mechanism ensures that the tiny ink droplet forms a minimal dot on top of the flexo plate, eliminating any ink spreading.
The DigiFlex system uses an advanced inkjet unit which jets ink droplets of 3.5 pL at 2880 dpi resolution. Combined with a very accurate plate feeding table, this system achieves 180 lpi quality on the plate.
So how does it work? A photopolymeric plate is coated with a special thin coating via a lamination process. This process transfers the thin coating layer from a substrate onto the plate. The plate is then introduced into the system, and the RIPped separations are printed on top of the plate. The ink is dried in-line and the plate comes out of the machine. Printing speeds are from one m2/hour up to a possible two m2/hour. Once the plate mask is ready, the standard processes of exposure, wash-out, dry-out and development are performed.
The benefits
According to Dr Moshe Frenkel, founder and CTO, DigiFlex, there are many benefits to the process.
Most importantly, no oxygen reaches the plate during the curing process. Exposing the plate to UV light in the presence of oxygen at the top of the plate causes a round-top dot to form, and this shape can introduce stability problems during printing. A flat-topped dot shape ensures instantaneous set-up since the pressure on the plate has almost no effect on dot gain. ‘Using the DigiFlex inkjet flexo CtP with its bi-component ink technology, a flexo plate with flat-topped dots is produced directly, enabling fast set-up time, with no dot gain,’ says Dr Frenkel.
Any analog plate can be used, including water washable, solvent washable, flexographic, letterpress or dry offset.
Pictured: A DigiFlex Flexojet system
This article was published in L&L issue 2, 2012
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Antoine Frérot, chief executive of Veolia, has won the latest round in his fight to stay at the helm of the world’s biggest water utility by sales after shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of appointing three new independent directors.
The three appointees will replace individuals believed to be more sympathetic to Henri Proglio, the former chief executive of Veolia who has been trying to carry out a boardroom coup against Mr Frérot – a one-time protégé.
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The vote at Veolia’s annual meeting in Paris on Wednesday came a day after one of the departing board members, Jean-François Dehecq, former boss at Sanofi, the French drugmaker, accused Mr Frérot of “abandoning the global ambitions” of Veolia.
Mr Proglio – who is now chief executive of EDF, the French state-owned nuclear power group, but still sits on Veolia’s board – tried to oust Mr Frérot after he decided to reverse the company’s rapid international expansion.
Mr Proglio faces his own battle to convince France’s new Socialist president, François Hollande, that he should remain at the helm of EDF. The EDF chief was not at the Veolia meeting.
Responding to a question about the criticism from Mr Dehecq, Mr Frérot said he was “entitled to his opinion, but is wrong”. He added: “To not change . . . would surely put an end to all Veolia’s ambitions.”
Veolia’s chief executive has launched a €5bn fire sale of assets and plans to halve the number of countries in which it does business. The company was lossmaking last year after an €800m writedown related to international businesses.
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Argentine electricity companies, including the local subsidiary of Italian utility Enel, say a virtual 10-year freeze in energy tariffs is pushing them close to collapse, raising fears that the government might nationalise them, as it recently did with oil company YPF.
Oscar Lescano, head of the sector’s light and force union, told the FT he estimated the two main groups, Edesur, owned by Spain’s Endesa which is in turn a unit of Italy’s Enel, and Edenor, which is owned by Argentina’s Pampa Energia, were losing more than $10m each a month.
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Fulvio Conti, Enel’s chief executive, added to industry complaints last week. “Today we are experiencing a moment of difficulty on the tariffs front. We are confident the Argentine government will see it needs to increase tariffs . . . to encourage investments in the country,” he said.
But the Argentine government, which has already had to step in to enable the companies to pay salaries, say the utilities have made handsome profits since privatisation in the 1990s and should not focus on “immediate gain”.
Roberto Baratta, right-hand man to Julio De Vido, the powerful planning minister who oversees the sector, said Endesa had made $800m in profits since privatisation in 1992.
“It is necessary to weigh up what happened in the first 20 years of the concession because these are long-term businesses in which the logic of immediate gain cannot prevail, especially when they have recovered their investment, paid dividends and the company has maintained its value,” he said in a statement.
Cheap electricity helped Argentina get back on its feet after its default on nearly $100bn in 2001, when more than half the population was plunged into poverty and one in four was out of work. But as one former senior official said: “They have kept the system too long and now they’re driving Edenor and Edesur to the wall.”
Whether to rescue the companies and encourage more investment by raising tariffs that have been eroded by inflation, or to support consumers by keeping tariffs low, is a problem that goes to the heart of current Argentine economic policy-making.
Argentines have become used to paying less for their electricity bills than the cost of dinner in a restaurant – indeed, current tariffs only cover a third of the cost of distributing electricity, the former official said. But the government recently backtracked from attempts to transfer the cost of subsidies to consumers.
Raising tariffs would also fuel inflation that is already running at 23.5 per cent, according to private estimates. Argentine economic growth this year is expected to drop sharply from last year’s 9 per cent expansion, with some economists even predicting a recession.
Nonetheless, Mr Lescano said he expected the government to extend a lifeline to the industry as its popularity would suffer if utilities were forced to ration power, as happened in the late 1980s. “I am confident there will be a rescue soon so the companies can invest and pay salaries, while the government studies its strategy for the sector,” said Mr Lescano. “Julio De Vido told me it is not the government’s intention to nationalise [Edenor and Edesur].”
Nonetheless, in the industry there is talk that Cammesa, the wholesale electricity administrator, and Transener, a transmission company owned by Pampa Energía, could be taken into state hands.
Unlike YPF, which was expropriated from Spain’s Repsol earlier this month and earns around $1.2bn a year, the loss-making power companies do not tug at nationalistic heartstrings and their debts would add to the financial burden of the government if it took control.
“It is critical that the administration communicates to investors that a more radical agenda is not being unleashed,” Barclays Capital said in a research note. “That said, the administration probably does want more command of the electricity sector and . . . some sort of intervention in electricity distribution companies and other segments of the electricity production chain should not be ruled out.”
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Applied DNA Sciences has launched a new, DNA-secured form of the QR code. A security tool, digitalDNA utilizes the flexibility of mobile communications, instant accessibility of secure, cloud-based data, and the certainty of DNA to make item tracking and authentication fast, easy and definitive. It also provides the opportunity to create a new customer interface.
The product uses forensic authentication of a botanical DNA marker, sequence-encrypted within a secure QR code, and physically included within the ink used to digitally print the code. The resulting pattern – or ‘rune’ – can be scanned via an app with an iPhone to assure originality anywhere along the supply chain. The scan checks in wirelessly with a secure database in a ‘private, secure cloud,’ and displays the resulting analysis back on the iPhone screen. Tracking information is fed into ‘tunable algorithms’ that use pattern recognition to automatically identify supply-chain risks, for counterfeits or product diversion.
Rapid-reading reporters, associated with the DNA marker, are also embedded in the ink, and prevent the secure code from being digitally copied. The markers, included in all digitalDNA codes, serve as a forensic backstop in legal cases where absolute proof of originality is required. Forensic authentication of the DNA in the ink, must match the sequences and length polymorphism found in the decrypted digitalDNA code.
The technology avoids the risks of phishing scams to which non-secure QR codes are vulnerable, while providing authentication, geolocation and time-stamping throughout the supply chain. The ubiquity of the iPhone platform allows the consumer to participate in the authentication scheme, quickly and easily. In addition, end-users could confirm freshness and expiration, connect to real-time or video technical support, identify local resources, easily place reorders, and participate in peer-to-peer selling.
The digitalDNA platform is designed to meet compliance specifications defined by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council, the new and strict standards developed for handling credit card transactions, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the stringent requirements for protecting personal health information.
It evolved from a partnership agreement signed with secure cloud-computing specialist DivineRun, in January 2012. The partnership will enhance and extend APDN’s core anti-counterfeiting, anti-diversion, and security systems into the digital track-and-trace sphere. The companies jointly described the agreement as ‘taking APDN’s best-in-class anti-counterfeiting and authentication systems and marrying them to the best in secure mobile applications and advanced cloud computing.’
James Hayward, president and CEO of APDN, sees ‘a terrific synergy’ in the partnership with DivineRune, whose name derives from a reference to symbology typified by the rise in applications of QR codes. ‘Our products today uniquely offer our customers proven, uncopyable authentication of virtually any product or asset. We are now ready to leverage the expertise of DivineRune to offer enhanced authentication systems which are faster, even more accessible and innovative. I believe that you will see some truly imaginative technology emerging from this partnership.’
The DivineRune management team specializes in highly secured IT systems for companies looking to send and store information in ‘private clouds’. They have a track record of success in building computing systems that operate in the most challenging environments. ‘These are areas which are in need of the highest security available, including advanced encryption of data in transit and at rest,’ explained John Paul Pennisi, product manager at DivineRune. ‘Without doubt, this partnership will reap the benefits of our core competencies in cloud computing, mobile devices, and logistics,’ he said.
digitalDNA can be used to track individually packaged items, such as drugs or luxury goods, when the space on the item is available to print the digitalDNA matrix. On items too small for the matrix, such as microchips, digitalDNA can be used on lot shipments.
The combined DNA-IT platform will also aim to satisfy requirements of the California E-Pedigree Law (SB 1307 (Ridley-Thomas, Chapter 713, Statutes of 2008), which requires an electronic record of every sale of prescription drugs in the state. The pedigree must thoroughly document the drug, including its source, identification, and other data. Some features of the law require compliance as early as 2015. The California law is said by many to have wide repercussions for the pharmaceutical industry globally.
APDN is selling digitalDNA directly and through its existing channel partnerships. An alpha sale was already placed with a multinational personal care company. Hayward stated: ‘digitalDNA could revolutionize supply chain security, and is relevant to all the industry verticals we currently service. digitalDNA offers logistic enhancement consistent with Section 818 of the National Defense Authorization Act, which mandates that defense suppliers take steps to eliminate counterfeits within their supply chain. A related product, our SigNature DNA is completing a military pilot designed to provide Section 818 compliance at the item level, while digitalDNA facilitates compliance for bulk shipments.’
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May 14, 2012—When Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine opened its new 1.6 million-square-foot facility with two 12-story towers on May 1 of this year, the building featured a real-time location system (RTLS) that enables the hospital to monitor the locations of hundreds of nurses, as well as thousands of pumps, wheelchairs and other high-value moving equipment. Johns Hopkins is also utilizing the RTLS technology to track the movements of approximately 400 carts that are automatically transported via towlines to deliver food from the hospital’s kitchen to patient units located throughout the building.
Johns Hopkins spent four years planning the RTLS solution, then tested the system within its simulations center and piloted it within operating rooms at its original facility. Now, the hospital has permanently installed the technology throughout its new building, which includes facilities for heart and vascular care, in addition to pediatrics.
The new building, consisting of the Sheikh Zayed Tower and the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center, occupies five acres of the hospital’s East Baltimore campus, replacing half of the original site. In anticipation of this new growth, the hospital began looking into RTLS solutions that would enable it to track assets, locate staff members and, eventually, monitor patient workflow, says Mike McCarty, the senior director and chief network officer for Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Health System.
“We became interested in tracking equipment about six years ago,” McCarty says. After testing technology supplied by multiple vendors, he explains, the hospital selected Versus Technology’s Versus Advantages system. According to Susan Pouzar, Versus Technology’s VP of sales, the hybrid infrared (IR) and RFID solution includes assets tags, employee badges, IR and RFID sensors (readers), and software to manage read data. Tags transmit an IR signal to IR sensors located within the area, while also sending an RFID transmission via 433 MHz to RFID sensors, using a proprietary air-interface protocol.
The hospital piloted Versus’ technology two years ago within several operating rooms, McCarty reports, in order to track the location of equipment. “It became clear there was a tremendous opportunity in savings of people time,” he states, due to the information that employees could access in the software regarding the equipment’s location before and after surgical procedures. By knowing where each asset is typically stored, McCarty speculates—as well as the demand for equipment within each operating room—the storage and movement of these machines could be optimized to make them more available to staff members as they are needed. “We believe there’s a huge savings there,” he says.
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A123 Systems, the Massachusetts-based battery manufacturer that has been offered a $249m US government grant, warned there was “substantial doubt” over its continuing as a going concern.
The problems facing A123, which makes batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles and for electricity grids, are the latest examples of the difficulties facing clean energy companies backed by government money but trying to become self-supporting businesses.
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In a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, A123 said its heavy losses since start-up, the $66.8m cost of a production fault that necessitated a battery recall and the end last week of its revolving bank credit facility called its survival into question.
It has hired outside advisers to work on the “evaluation of strategic alternatives” and has agreed a deal to raise $50m from convertible loan notes and warrants, which it expects to close at the end of the week.
However, the statement warned that while A123 was trying to cut costs and raise additional financing, “there is no assurance that the company will be able to obtain such financing on favourable terms, if at all, or to successfully further reduce costs in such a way that would continue to allow the company to operate its business”.
A123 floated on the stock market in September 2009 at $13.50 per share, and jumped on its opening day to close up 50 per cent. Shares were down 3 per cent at $0.94 in midday trading in New York on Wednesday.
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Posted on 16 May 2012
drupa was a somewhat overwhelming experience, but it was clear that package printing is a growing market. The show has also seen plenty of label-related launches; a full review will be published in L&L issue 3, 2012.
On the show floor, the view of the industry and its future seemed positive. A spokesperson for Kodak commented: ‘Everyone thinks the future for print is in daily life.’ While many of us are moving away from printed books in favor of digital formats, we continue to need everyday items such as food and drink, as well home and personal care products. For these products, nothing can replace the label and packaging. Even where QR codes and other interactive innovations have been adopted, the label still has a place to display this link to the ‘virtual world’, as well as vital product information. The threat will come as commercial printers die out and look to move into labels.
Returning to the subject of using the label as a marketing tool, it was pleasing to hear there was a large presence from brand owners wandering the exhibition halls – evidence they are increasingly aware of the benefits the label can offer their brand. Jeanine Graat, global marketing manager at Apex, noted that brand owners are now contacting the company directly. This is a positive sign that the entire packaging supply chain is beginning to connect and work together.
Carol Houghton, journalist, L&L
Carol Houghton
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May 15, 2012—When Xplor, a Mexican adventure park located in Riviera Maya, was under construction four years ago, the park’s photo manager, Felipe Lorenzo, faced a challenge: how to design a system that could snap dozens or hundreds of photographs of each of the parks’ visitors in action, without making them stop and provide their names. The site includes two circuits of zip lines, two circuits for amphibious vehicles, an underground river for swimming beneath stalactites, and two other subterranean rivers for paddling in rafts. Lorenzo wanted to develop automated technology with which a guest could simply be recognized, photographed and offered pictures that he or she could then purchase onsite at the end of the day, or online upon returning home.
Lorenzo’s team, led by Quetzal Chilian, the park’s new-projects chief, developed a solution that includes passive radio frequency identification tags embedded in visitors’ safety helmets, as well as optical sensors and readers installed near automated cameras, and a software system that identifies the optimal time to trigger a photograph and then stores that picture, along with the proper individual’s records. Xplor’s IT department supplied the software and handled its integration.
The team realized that the park’s fast-paced environment, in which visitors would be in motion more than stationary, would not always be conducive to photography. The cameras would need to capture pictures at the point at which zip-line participants take a leap off a tower, or as rafters negotiate passage through a cave. It was deemed too impractical for Xplor’s staff to try to capture snapshots at the right moment, and to then try to manually connect each picture with the correct guest. However, because participants would be issued helmets to protect their heads, the team saw an opportunity to use the headgear to track each visitor as he or she moved throughout the park.
Xplor has 1,800 safety helmets, of which up to 1,000 are typically in use on any given day. Three Alien Technology Squiggle EPC Gen 2 passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tags were embedded under the padding inside each helmet, and remain invisible to users.
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