Gas companies invest a huge amount of capital on gas cylinders as they are still preferred for delivery of industrial gases over pipeline and tankers. The current cylinder tracking system which is being used by most of the companies is very complex. Due to this complexity, gas manufacturing companies lose about one percent of their cylinders every year. With the current outdated tracking system, it is difficult to differentiate between dealer-owned, customer-owned and company-owned cylinders, which is leading to inaccuracy in records. These problems can be overcome by the RFID-enabled cylinder management system. Below is a step-by-step procedure for carrying out RFID cylinder management:
Attaching RFID tags to new Cylinders
Whenever a new cylinder comes from the manufacturer, it is checked for any possible disparity before it is moved to the warehouse. If there are no disparities found, then an RFID tag will be attached to the new cylinder.
Checking the empty Cylinders
The empty cylinders with RFID tags that are received from the clients, are checked manually with the help of the hand-held reader. If the cylinder and its manufacturer is different, then it is returned back to the client.
Refilling the empty Cylinders
Before refilling the empty cylinder, it is tested for the due date. RFID readers that are attached to the filling points read the tag on the cylinder and then refill it.
Final verification and Delivery
The tags that are attached to the cylinders are tracked using the hand-held reader. Finally, the tag information is uploaded on the server, and the cylinders are loaded in the vehicle for delivery to clients.