RFID asset management has played an important role in China’s International Space Station.
At 9:22 on June 17, 2021, the Long March 2 carrier rocket successfully sent the Shenzhou 12 manned spacecraft into the intended orbit. Hence, Successfully sending three Chinese astronauts, Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo, into space. They also became The first batch of “space visitors” in the Tianhe Core Module of the Chinese Space Station.
Independently build the ” Heavenly palace” space station. RFID innovative applications rise into space
In the entire history of human manned spaceflight, there have been four series. 12 space stations in total. At the beginning, In 1971, US successfully launched the first space station “Salute 1” . However, today, half a century later, there is only one International Space Station still in orbit .
The International Space Station is an international cooperative project. And its members include the United States, Russia, the European Union, Japan and Canada. Although China has repeatedly applied to join the construction of the International Space Station, it has repeatedly been led by the United States to oppose it. Thus, China has to construct independent space station by themselves.
Chinahas developed space station for 30 years. And according to the national plan, China expect to complatete the wuhole space station in 2022. By 2024, the current International Space Station will retire. And by then, Tiangong-1 will become the only space station in orbit. In general, the success of Tiangong-1 will win a strong voice for China in the field of space research. And establish its own advantages in the human space exploration and research field .
According to incomplete statistics, more than 1,000 new materials have emerged in the world in recent years. And the aerospace technology developed 80% meterial in all. More ever, people transplanted more than 2,000 aerospace technology achievements to the national economy.
The space station construction is a huge technology-intensive project with many implications. The daily operation of Tiangong-1 is also closely related to RFID technology.
Sichuan Aerospace has deeply participated in the major project construction of the “Tiangong” space station. And is responsible for materials management systems development. Not only handheld RFID readers, but also other components help to make a comfortable environment in space.
RFID material management system greatly reduces the workload of astronauts
Although the new Tianhe core module has changed from the one-bedroom laboratory to a large flat floor. Its space is still very limited. Without a material management system for the space station, it is easy to cause chaos. Therefore, the space station uses a RFID brand-new material information management system.
Compared with the previous solution, the new system use RFID radio frequency identification technology. That is, technichian equipped all the materials with ultra-thin microchips Label. After an item has a tag, it is equivalent to having a remark “identity ID”. And the RFID tag transmit data. In order to automatically identifying and tracking the item.
Compare to the past use bar code system in the International Space Station. RFID radio frequency identification technology can realize batch, fast and accurate automatic identification. So that materials have a visual information data flow.
Firstly, scan materials through mobile phones, handheld RFID readers, tablets and other devices. Secondly, astronauts can realize the timely update information such as material entry, retrieval, position movement, etc.. So as to realize material management digitalization and greatly reduce the cleaning materials cost. From this, Chinese astronauts managed to clean up all the assets within 6 days.
Future more, the new RFID asset management system is a part of China’s space station information system. Firstly, to ensure the communication astronauts’ life support. Secondly, to improve the space station management level. Thirdly, to reduce the astronauts’ non-essential workload. In that case, they can free up energy to achieve more meaningful space results.
RFID material management “flowers” everywhere in all walks of life
In recent years, with the continuous popularization of digital management concepts, RFID technology has “flowered” in the field of material management. Not only including books, electricity, manufacturing, transportation. But also medical care, banks, enterprises and other different industries as well.
In general, the RFID asset management system adopts a one item, one code management model. And a unique ID bound with each fixed asset. Future more, it Covered material purchase, procurement, warehousing to scrapping, almost the entire life cycle. Because RFID has a strong group reading ability, it can read hundreds of RFID tags in one second. Hence, greatly improves the efficiency of material inventory.
According to the statistical data after actual application. After using the RFID asset management system. Not only the enterprise asset management inventory efficiency steped forward by more than 90%. But also the asset repurchase and loss rate reduced by more than 40%. More ever, the material auditing cost reduced by more than 75%.
RFID Asset management software
In addition to the hardware system, the RFID Asset management system also needs to work hard on the software.
For example, technicians implement the most common functions such as warehouse entry and exit management and asset inventory statistics on the software basis. With the help of a software platform, companies can understand asset conditions and trends in real time. And have clear data presentations on asset depletion, inventory management, and asset utilization rates.
With the entire society informatization level continuous improving. The enterprises digital transformation is an inevitable trend in the future. In this process, material management continues to develop in the direction of digitization, automation. And intelligence, and RFID technology will continue to exert greater advantages.
