Ensure correct installation of hydraulic valves and hoses

Valves - Mounted on Caterpillar-built construction vehicles - Dimensions comparable to automotive engines. In order to fix the catheter on the valve and ensure the normal operation of the valve, the worker must use a specific amount of torque - about 300 Newton meters - to tighten the bolt. Prior to using the RFID system, workers had been manually tightening bolts with tongs and could not confirm that the torque had reached the correct Newton meters.

Caterpillar uses Protrac, a software system provided by DeJaeger Automation, a Belgian industrial software company, on the assembly line to track the assembly of each part and the corresponding staff and assembly time. The worker enters his ID number and the details of the upcoming work on the software running at the container station PC, and the serial number of the planned installation component.

Prior to the use of RFID, the tightness of the catheter installation can only be determined by the employee's judgment. The employee paints the part with the marking and visually checks the tightness of the connection.

The factory has about 4,300 workers and builds large and medium size excavators and wheel loaders. Caterpillar and DeJaeger met in 2008 and Caterpillar project manager Degraux said the two companies decided to jointly develop a cost-effective RFID system.

In December 2008, DeJaeger installed RFID readers in the main assembly area of ​​Caterpillar high pressure hydraulic valves. This RFID system works with Protrac software. At the same time, the company replaced six hand-operated torque clamps with six electronic torsion clamps equipped with active RFID tags. Each wrench is designed for a specific assembly area and presets a specific torque. When the worker reaches the maximum force preset by the valve, the wrench begins to click and it indicates that the duct has been properly installed and the application torque is transmitted to the corresponding PC. By applying an RFID tag on each wrench, the real-time positioning system ensures that the correct wrench is used in the right place.