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Material Handling Headlines
RFID For Safer Work Environment
- 12/18/2009Read the full story at rfidjournal.com.
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Spanish construction firms Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC) and ACCIONA are excavating a pair of railroad tunnels near the city of Vigo, in the community of Galicia, bordering Portugal. The tunnels will expand the North-Northwest Railway Corridor, which connects Madrid to Galicia for the state-owned ADIF rail lines. Inside the tunnels are multiple hazards, including heavy equipment, dim lighting and periodic blasting to bore through the rock. To track the hundreds of workers located within these tunnels, 24 hours a day, the companies sought technology that would enable them to know the locations of workers as they bore their way through the Galaico-Leones mountains, in Northwest Spain. In fall 2009, Bautel installed a system using existing Wi-Fi access points, and equipped each employee with an Ekahau T301BD Wi-Fi-enabled RFID badge, says Tuomo Rutanen, Ekahau's VP of business development. The badge transmits at the Wi-Fi 802.11 protocol in the 2.4 GHz frequency band, and also receives transmissions, thus enabling it to be used as a way to locate an individual wearing the badge, while also allowing that user and managers to communicate with each other. With a rechargeable battery, the badge beacons a unique ID number at predetermined rates, and can also send distress alerts and receive text messages.
