Trade Press Information /HAND-OUT

The gas industry and especially suppliers of gas cylinders felt exposed to a growing competition in the past, with a major focus on maintaining their status as suppliers for key accounts or searching for potential major customers, respectively.

Looking back on the very tense economic situation of the year 1992; losses/recession still from 1991, had an impact on the markets. As a result, the growing competition – especially in the gas industry and fueled by constantly decreasing prices for standard gases – affected in general the troubled economy. For partial redirection, a deposit on gas cylinders was levied everywhere, as already requested earlier by all gas suppliers and for further debit to the customers.
The customers on the other side, suddenly confronted with increasing, non-transparent deposit costs for gas cylinders, demanded a reliable record of the actual days of leasing. 

The solution – electronic control of the cylinders!
But, who could bring about most rapidly best practise?

Many suppliers immediately considered the barcode.  This “technology” was available, already applied, and what is applied must be good.
Euphorically believing to have found an adequate solution, the disadvantages of the barcode system were not considered or neglected –
low memory capacity of about 100 bit and not rewritable, very sensitive towards scratches, dirt and moisture (so, automatically a high rate of destroyed barcodes of cylinders in traffic), only readable at close glance, up to the purchase of complicated printers.
But, visionary enterprises existed as well, like former Messer Griesheim AG,  today Air Liquide Deutschland GmbH, discovered for their purposes the hardly known RFID-Technology (Radio Frequency Identification),  as an opportunity for electronic cylinder tracing. This progressive technology allows to write information on a so-called transponder (tag), and read it with a read/write device. But the number of competent partners for this advanced technology was small at that time. 

The competitors chose barcode systems, but Messer Griesheim made a courageous step ahead and searched for RFID solutions.

The solution was found at scemtec transponder technology GmbH in Reichshof near Gummersbach.
Quite a young enterprise, but already specialised, a competent and efficient partner with sufficient basic know-how for this unique conceptual idea at that time. 

This was a new frontier, for both enterprises real pioneer performance.

The convincing advantages of transponders compared to barcode labels became immediately obvious. On one hand, resistant towards environmental conditions and on the other hand, a huge memory capacity for information that could be read and furthermore rewritten or respectively updates written/saved at any time.

Within only a few months, the experts of scemtec transponder technology GmbH and Messer Griesheim GmbH developed a full system, unique up to that date. This system was composed of, and is still successfully operating with, a read/write device MDR (Mobile Data Recorder – product name SHT 3320), for passive transponder in the range of 125 KHz and a charger (product name SHT B3) exclusively developed by scemtec, which simultaneously serves for the transfer of recorded data to the PC. The scemtec reader had to be designed for explosive areas as well, which meant to be an additional challenge.
For transfer and evaluation of the data, Messer Griesheim developed simultaneously an Electronic Management and Information System for Steel Cylinders (the database is called ELVIS: Elektronisches Verwaltungs- und Informationssystem für Stahlflaschen).
Messer Griesheim now reasoned with a more precise identification of the supplied cylinder, because the transponder did not only contain the product number, print data and volume – but  the technical test date and “crucial”, the cylinder number with the production year as  distinctive feature of a cylinder. Steel cylinders for ELVIS-customers were, from now on, equipped with transponders held by a ring, attached to the protective cylinder neck.

In September 1994, the era of ‘electronic cylinder track and trace’ in the gas industry started, attentively followed by the according press and industry.

The MDE enabled the customer to register the cylinders on delivery by Messer Griesheim and to read out the data on their return to Messer Griesheim. Messer Griesheim as well recorded the cylinders, previous to delivery and on their return. From this developed an absolute transparent control of the cylinder inventory at the customer’s facilities and at Messer Griesheim with an exact billing of accrued lease costs. 
An additional highlight arose for the customer. In case of internal booking from a hub to the according consumer, the cylinder was allocated an internal cost centre within the data base and as well a location identification, if required. Therefore it is now possible to control each cylinder via the database – e.g. which cost centre and/or location in a certain period of time created how much lease costs. This is important for the internal billing of lease within Messer Griesheim. Long storage periods can be controlled and checked aiming at a decrease in lease costs and in order to reduce the number of cylinders in stock.
Experience showed that due to the control of lease costs,  the circulation periods of the cylinders became shorter and the related lease costs invoiced by Messer Griesheim reduced.

Disadvantageous for Messer Griesheim – not at all, because such logistics concentrating on reliability and efficiency give evidence of a cooperative supply performance und strengthen satisfied, long-term customer relations.
Furthermore smaller cylinder stocks at the customers’ facilities noticeably reduced the purchase of new cylinders by Messer Griesheim.  About 600 000 gas cylinders, but as well thousand of pallets have been equipped with transponders at Messer Griesheim, and are still equipped today at Air Liquide Deutschland GmbH.
   
RFID in the gas industry – in due course initiated in close cooperation of Messer Griesheim and scemtec – created a pulling effect.

More than 50 enterprises and institutions in Germany, like the university medical centres, now track and trace gas cylinders via RFID.
Nowadays, it is hard to imagine the gas industry without electronic identification via RFID. Other large, well-known gas enterprises have over the years acknowledged the advantages compared to the barcode and assumed this concept.
Especially the former Swedish industrial gas enterprise AGA is to be mentioned here, today part of Linde AG, which relies on the sophisticated RFID technology by scemtec in almost all of its distribution areas.

Naturally scemtec further developed the technology, the success story continues.

„RFID goes Bluetooth“ – the scemtec Hand Held RFID product family expanded. The lately developed tailor-made industrial reader SIH 5010 (Scemtec Intelligent Handheld Reader for passive transponder) corresponds to the current requirements of the oil and gas industry for “tracking and tracing” gas cylinders.
The progressive reader was developed for the harsh environment prevailing in the logistic systems for industrial gas cylinders and vessels in the chemical industry for worldwide application. It will completely replace its predecessor, scemtec SIH 3001. 
The first 100 readers in series are currently under rough conditions in operation around the world for the company AGA (see above) and will become the future key element for the RFID aided vessel identification, which forms the basis of a modern and economic loan pool management! The new SIH 5010 has an independent rechargeable battery and a Bluetooth interface. Therefore it can be connected to any modern Bluetooth pocket PC.