Schreiner ProTech, a Germany-based global leader in developing and manufacturing innovative functional labels with value-added benefits for the automotive and engineering-based industries, has collaborated with electronics logistics provider ifm to develop a functional product marking system compatible with ifm’s team of retrieval robots. Schreiner ProTech’s ((rfid))-DistaFerr ESD LongRange Labels allow ifm’s crew of driverless Automated Mobile Robots (AMRs) to quickly and accurately find, deliver and digitally track products at its facility in Tettnang, Germany.

For ifm, it is critical that its Automated Mobile Robots work efficiently when locating an item or finding its intended intra-facility destination. Each AMR travels approximately 30 kilometers per day, placing emphasis not only on finding and transporting the correct item, but doing so with the least-possible lag time. At each stop, an AMR passes a special rack system – a type of gate – where the scheduled container can be dropped off and a new one picked up. Information on where and when to deliver an item is conveyed digitally, lending to optimal capacity utilization.

Among the common challenges in such a setting are electrostatic discharge (ESD) containers, which have antistatic elements that adversely affect RFID functionality. Schreiner ProTech’s ((rfid))-DistaFerr ESD LongRange Labels are specially adapted to thrive even on ESD surfaces.

For ifm, the result has been seamless interaction between mark¬ing, identification, and digitalization. The company is enjoying 99% delivery accuracy – especially impressive considering that its 155,000 customers worldwide generate around 1.3 million purchase orders per year.

“It was crucial for all containers to be uniquely marked and auto¬matically identifiable,” explains Ulrich Beller, Lean Manager for ifm. “The RFID labels were the key to this use case. As a result of now having combined two steps in one process we ben¬efit from massive time savings and increase in efficiency.”

“((rfid))-DistaFerr ESD LongRange is not exactly a niche product,” says Katharina Totev, product manager RFID at Schreiner ProTech, “but has been developed for a specific use case – that is for application to ESD materials. However, what makes this all-in-one solution unique is the combination of our marking and the Automated Mobile Robots from ifm.”