Sensing Puck

The Challenge

For the storage and transportation of numerous products in the chemical industry, maintaining a temperature range of 15 to 25 degrees is a mandatory requirement. However, a look at the everyday operations of these companies shows that refrigerated trucks and warehouses are rarely used, and instead, standard trucks and regular logistics sites of logistics service providers are used. Standard pallets and roll cages are also used as loading aids, which are only covered with a thermal cover. In view of these deficiencies, the risk of quality loss during the transportation and storage process appears to be significant. Additionally, the entire transportation process is divided into many steps, and responsibilities within this process are borne by different individuals. Furthermore, the documentation of individual transport steps is often incomplete. As a result, product managers can hardly ensure the proper delivery of products. At the same time, it is difficult to identify the cause of possible unauthorized deviations. As a consequence, high costs for complaints and reputational damages for companies can arise.

The solution

To ensure consistently high product quality for customers in a sustainable manner, an innovative solution is required. For this reason, researchers at Fraunhofer IML, as part of the Silicon Economy project »Modular IoT Devices« have developed a puck-shaped device capable of monitoring and recording temperature, position, goods transfer, and the entire transport chain in a gapless manner - the Sensing Puck.

The use case

In a chemical company, products requiring a temperature range of 15 to 25 degrees were packaged and handed over to a logistics service provider. The standard freight transport units and thermo units were equipped with the innovative Sensing Puck IoT device. The Puck-shaped device is designed to be compact and robust, and the housing can be flexibly adapted to different loading aids. During use, the Sensing Puck's display serves various functions, such as displaying an ID and current temperature, and providing event-based warnings, alarms, and error messages. There are no switches, buttons, or similar components inside the device that are susceptible to errors or damage, and activation and deactivation are carried out via a double-tap on the housing. Thanks to the integration of the Sensing Puck, the logistics chain is continuously monitored, and relevant deviations and errors during the transport process are quickly and unambiguously detected. At the same time, quality control at the time of shipment acceptance is simplified and accelerated, allowing for timely complaints before the products are used in subsequent processes. In addition to improving product quality and safety for customers, administrative and operational expenses for goods deliveries are reduced. Overall, personnel, process, and complaint costs for companies can be lowered.

The Facts

• Robust, splash-proof housing
• Measures temperature and humidity
• Easy operation with gloves - Double tap instead of buttons
• Ultra-low power technology for long battery life
• Localization via WLAN detection (internal), interpolation in the mobile network or GPS (external)
• Data exchange and communication via known WLAN networks / mobile networks (WLAN / NB-IoT / LTE Cat. M1 (5G))
• LED matrix for displaying ID and current temperature as well as events (warning, alarm, error)
• Supports sustainable logistics processes

Curious to learn more?

...then contact our designated contacts listed on the side!

You can also find further information about the project on the Silicon Economy website.