With the goal of more safely tracking and managing the transit of high pressure gas cylinders, the Japanese Industrial Medical Gases Association (JIMGA) has implemented a gas cylinder management system that utilises Electronic Product Code/Radio Frequency Identification (EPC/RFID) tags.
Traditionally there was a symbol and number system that was used to identify these cylinders. But this system was riddled with issues as each company had their own tagging system and were not able to read other company’s tags. When there are companies that manufacture the gas, those who sell the cylinders, and users of the gas, who are all different – a complicated interwoven web of movement is created and the cylinder can easily be untraceable.
These problems of traceability were resulting in cylinders being ‘lost’ for a number of weeks before they were ‘found’ – costing companies time and money. Due to not being able to scan codes, to be informed what the cylinder contained, more time had to be spent on testing the cylinder which, ultimately, costs money.
Describing the situation the Japanese gases industry was in, Kazuki Matsuzaka, Executive Officer of the Japanese Industrial Medical Gases Association (JIMGA), said, “Under the high
pressure gases safety law we are required to keep cylinder management records for the high pressure gases that we handle.”
... to continue reading you must be subscribed
