MAINtag SAS and Tego, Inc announced on January 12th 2010, that
the companies' jointly-developed FLYtag products will be used in
a pioneering effort to tag thousands of aircraft parts across the
Airbus A350 XWB fleet.
MAINtag were founded in 2004 and provides RFID tags, readers and
software to major accounts for their industrial optimisation.
They design and produce in house, rugged industrial RFID tags for
challenging environments. Founded in 2005, Tego, Inc. produces
high-memory RFID chips, tags and software. Its technology enables
RFID applications that go beyond simple identification to allow
rich storage of information and data tagged to assets for their
life.
MAINtag will be the prime contractor for the jointly secured
multi-year Airbus contract to supply next-generation RFID
high-memory tags that can hold the complete birth record and
maintenance history of aircraft parts, enabling new cutting-edge
Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul applications. The combination of
MAINtag's expertise in tag manufacturing and Tego's high-memory
chip, provides the first standards-compliant, high memory and
fully-passive RFID tags that help achieve Airbus' goal of value
chain visibility.
The A350 XWB will begin using MAINtag's FLYtag solution, which
incorporates Tego's high-memory RFID chip (the TegoChip), to tag
over 1,500 pressurized and non-pressurized parts and components
on each aircraft. MAINtag and Tego will offer the FLYtag for use
on all aircraft. The A350 XWB will be the first aircraft in the
Airbus fleet that will use RFID on flyable parts and will be
rolled out with the involvement of Airbus suppliers. The program
will deploy ruggedized high-memory RFID tags on flyable parts,
allowing improved aircraft configuration management and line
maintenance, repair shop optimization, warehouse logistics,
payload tracking and life-limited parts monitoring.
"We are very proud to have been chosen by Airbus, and are excited
to work with MAINtag to deliver the first flyable parts RFID tags
that will allow Airbus and its suppliers to get RFID in the air
quickly," said Timothy Butler, president and CEO of Tego, Inc.
As Aircraft manufacturers move towards being paid only when an
airframe is in the air and not on the ground, then the ability to
reduce the time spent in MRO whilst still maintaining the
necessary safety requirements has become a priority. This
solution has been talked about since around 2002 when I first
became involved in RFID. This really shows how RFID has crossed
the chasm and has become an important part of solutions to solve
business problems in today’s agile world.
