Info is key in cold chain work
January 1st 2011 Igloo warms to radio loggers that maintain
integrity of food and pharma loads
Novel datalogging technology is helping the UK's best
known refrigerated transport company to assure
customers in the food and pharmaceutical industries that
their products are being stored and transported in perfect
environmental conditions.
Gemini Data Loggers first supplied Igloo
Thermo-Logistics with its small battery
powered Tinytag loggers over four years ago.
Since that time Igloo has employed over 40
of the loggers to record temperature within
refrigerated vehicles, providing evidence that
Igloo is conforming to the requirements of
the company's pharmaceutical and food
industry customers.
Following the launch of Gemini's new
radio-enabled logger communication technology, Igloo
incorporated a new system at its facilities in both Watford and
Leeds.
Commenting on the benefits of the new equipment, Igloo md
Alistair Turner says: "We are now able to view live temperature
data from all of our cold rooms 24/7 from any computer
anywhere in the world. However, the system also enables us to set
alarms so that text and email alerts are issued to key staff if any
of the temperatures start to deviate from the norm. As a result,
we are able to deal with any problems before they occur."
The Tinytag Radio System consists of a number of radio
loggers connected wirelessly to a receiver. The receiver is
connected to a central PC running Tinytag Explorer Radio
software that continuously collects and stores data from the
remote loggers.
The radio loggers work together in a mesh network, in which
all the devices work together to send information to the central
receiver. It allows for continuous connections and automatic
reconfiguration around broken or blocked paths by hopping data
from node to node until the destination is reached.
"The mesh network capability effectively means that we have
found a way for radio to go around corners," says Gemini's Nigel
Palmer. "The radios have a 200 metre range
and sensor cables can extend up to 10 metres.
This means that the radio loggers can be
mounted high above the sensor locations to
maximise radio connectivity."
The Tinytag radio loggers were first
installed by Igloo in late summer 2010 and
Alistair Turner has been delighted with the
system. He says: "We chose Tinytags,
following a trial of other products, because
they proved extremely robust – able to withstand extremes of
temperature and physical abuse. The simplicity of the new system
meant that costs were very low; we simply installed the software,
connected the receiver and
mounted the radio loggers." More articles from Gemini Data Loggers (UK) Ltd: | 
