United States Department of Transportation
i
Radio Frequency Identification to Track Freight Car Truck Components at the Facility for Accelerated Service Testing
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2009-09-01
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By Maal, Luis
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Abstract:Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads (AAR), conducted a radio frequency identification demonstration (RFID) test at the Facility for Accelerated Service Testing (FAST) on the High Tonnage Loop (HTL) located at the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colorado. This 10-week test showed that RFID technology, which has traditionally been used to track packages and boxes, can be used to track railroad freight-car truck components at speeds of 10 to 40 miles per hour (mph). Twenty-six passive RFID tags were bonded to the wheels, axles, side frames, and bolsters on the trucks of three cars of the FAST train, for a total of 156 tags. Two of the three test cars had aluminum carbodies; the third had steel. This test evaluated two RFID scanners with four antennae each and an automatic equipment identification reader. Four RFID scanner antennae were deployed between the rails in different orientations, and two antennae were mounted vertically on either side of the track to evaluate the effect of antenna position on scanning efficiency. The RFID tags mounted to the wheels, axles, side frames, and bolsters were read each lap for approximately 13,000 miles at FAST. RFID tags mounted to the couplers were read well at low speeds (5 to 10 mph). At 40 mph, many RFID tags were missed due to a narrow window of visibility. Carbody material (aluminum or steel) did not appear to affect how well RFID tags were read. Five wheel-mounted RFID tags fell off, likely due to inadequate degreasing of the area where the epoxy adhesive was applied.
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