Source Engineering produces the fifty thousandth stainless steel RFID carrier

Source Engineering and Manufacturing, a leading provider of design consultancy, tooling and manufacturing expertise in small stainless steel parts, has just manufactured its fifty thousandth stainless steel RFID carrier.  Mounted on stainless steel cable ties these tags are used for remote identification of cables in the offshore oil and gas industry.

Radio frequency identification, or RFID, describes those technologies that use radio waves to identify objects – in this case cables. RFID aids effective asset management, and allows accurate location of cables and their interconnections, or identification of equipment that carries a serial number.

Source Engineering used its experience of working with stainless steels to develop a number of different prototypes for the end user to trial.  The key to success was in achieving the best balance between protection in the housing and good readability.

Once the optimum design was identified Source Engineering set about moving from the prototype to production runs, and designed the manufacturing process and made the associated tooling.  The holder is manufactured from 316 grade stainless steel (as is the cable tie onto which it is mounted), which is polyester powder coated, then assembled and packed as a finished product. Final quality checks ensure that every one is test scanned for readability.  

Source Engineering’s Operations Director, Ian Matthews commented “Stainless steel is a great choice for projects like this where corrosion resistance, toughness and ability to withstand extremes of temperature are required, but it can be a difficult material to press and form accurately, and requires specialised tooling.  We have over twenty years’ experience of designing and producing small parts in stainless steel which meant we could quickly come up with a viable solution.  In this case the turnaround time from initial enquiry to full production was just six months, as the design, tooling and production is all in-house.  The carrier allows these tags to perform reliably in the harsh offshore environment by protecting them from salt water, chemicals and impact.”