STTR Phase I: Chemical Management System using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

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This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will explore the feasibility of applying Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies for the inventory management of time and temperature sensitive materials, which are PreMixed and Frozen (PMF) sealants that are extensively used today in the aerospace industry. This project fundamentally aims to develop and implement distributed power control schemes for RFID antennas/readers in order to overcome the read rate problem, which is a major obstacle in front of RFID implementation in industry today. This research project provides a solution to a major aerospace industry problem; the loss of millions of dollars annually due to expired PMF sealants. Utilizing RFID technologies in tandem with current practices will provide near real-time PMF sealant inventory and expiration date data and thus lead to effective and efficient management of PMF sealants. In turn this will result in a dramatic decrease in customer cost and unwanted waste while increasing the service level for production. Current prime aerospace company customers have shown great interest in this proposed research and it is estimated that these customers as well as other prime aerospace companies and suppliers would invest $25-30 million to acquire, implement, and utilize this technology.