The aviation industry includes airlines, airport operations, and aircraft manufacturing. For airlines, a high attendance rate and high customer satisfaction result in high income, on-time take-off, and safety management of luggage would directly improve customer satisfaction. And for airports, security is the major target of the operation, any unknown threat may cause an unaccountable accident. While for aircraft manufacturing, high reliability and high efficiency are important, real-time work in process management ensures all the manufacturing comply with the quality standard, effective management of composite material would reduce waste and save cost. Due to the harsh environment and high-reliability demand of air transportation, the aviation industry remands robust and reliable products to be used in luggage tracking, security checking, MRO management, aeronautical material management, work in process management, and tool management.
Crepak offers a wide range of product portfolios for the aviation industry, including RFID tags, readers, antennas, and smart equipment, we are experienced to solve the problems you are facing, including:
Luggage tracking
For a long time, faulty baggage delivery and breakage have been a pain point in the airline industry, real-time tracking of luggage, accurately locating the location of luggage, reducing the error rate of luggage delivery (including loss, delay, damage, theft, etc.) would significantly improve passenger satisfaction. RFID can assist in effectively managing luggage, help to track the luggage at four key joints(check-in, loading, transfer, and arrival), and share the real-time information and history routes so that airlines and passengers can check the luggage timely. Normally RFID inside luggage labels are attached to each luggage while RFID tunnels and RFID portals are used to track the luggage at each joint.
Life preserver management
Aviation life preserver includes oxygen generators, oxygen masks, life jackets, etc., according to aviation compliance, a routine inspection needs to be handled to make sure each seat is equipped with enough life preservers and are not expired, traditional inspection was done manually which cost a lot of time, after the deployment of RFID, inspection time reduced from tens of minutes to a few minutes, which significantly increases efficiency, reduce departure delays and improve the passenger satisfaction. RFID tags or labels are mounted on life preservers, while handheld or tablet readers are used for inspection.
Security checking management
Carry-on baggage security check is an important part of the airport security, once there is any potential risk, the matching between baggage and passenger can help security staff quickly find the corresponding passenger or luggage, RFID based security checking lines can link the will carry-on luggage with passenger identities, automatically collect luggage quantity, photos, security line number, time and other related information, to enhance the level of security management and monitor security checking status, optimize the security operation. Normally rugged RFID tag is mounted on the baggage tray while reliable fixed RFID readers are equipped at key joints of the security checking line.
Aeronautical material management
There is a huge volume of aeronautical material used in aircraft MRO, less of material will delay the aircraft repair or maintenance while excess material costs too much, effective management of aeronautical material is the essential objective of operation manager, RFID can be used to automatically record the dispensing and replenishment, so that real-time inventory status, consuming statistic report can be referred to optimize aeronautical material management. Disposable RFID tags are always mounted on the package or aeronautical material itself, while fixed RFID readers/smart portals are used for automatic identification, and handheld/tablet reader are used to inspect the inventory situation.
MRO management
In air transportation, safety is the most critical demand, planes and engines should be extremely reliable and stable, any defect may cause tremendous accidents, timely maintenance and overhaul are restrict required to be done, and the process needs to be recorded and can be accessed to even offline. RFID can be used to manage the MRO efficiently and safely, all MRO history can be recorded in the RFID tags on components, ATA Spec 2000 is a standard for RFID tags used in the aviation industry, Robust RFID tags are mounted or embedded in the aircraft components while robust tablet or handheld readers are assigned to staffs for inspection and recording.
Composite material management
In aircraft manufacturing, more and more composite materials are used to enhance strength and reduce weight, all the raw materials are chemical products that look similar and will expire after some time or explosion, then restrict manage is required to ensure its function and quality. RFID can be used to identify this material effectively, normally rugged on-metal RFID tags are mounted on the material carrier, like a metal tank, while handheld readers, fixed reader and smart equipment are used to identify each material and the check-in and check out from warehouse.
Tool management
In aircraft manufacturing, various tools are used in assembly and equipment MRO management, FOD prevention and FME are critical for aviation safety and are a mandatory requirement in aircraft assembly, operators need to restrict manage each tool; also, even tools not left in aircraft by missed in another place, it is a big loss to manufacturers, what’s more, for some of the tools, regular calibration is necessary to ensure its function. Benefit from RFID, the receiving and returning of tool can be managed effectively, tool missing can be discovered timely so that further actions can be done accordingly, and alert of calibration can be sent in advance. Due to the different sizes and form factors of tools, many types of RFID tags are needed, they can be mounted on the tool via epoxy, heat-shrinkable tube, or adhesive; normally fixed readers and smart equipment are used to automatically check-in and check out tools while handheld readers are used to finding the missed tools.
