IJCA Vol 4 i1 2025 webmag - Flipbook - Page 28
28 The International Journal of Conformity Assessment
Equipment
Due to cost considerations, the investigation is limited to the use of passive RFID tags (Weber, 2023).
The industry standard for this purpose lies in the ultra-high-frequency range from 860 MHz to 930 MHz
(Dressen, 2004; Want, 2006). Therefore, four different passive UHF tags are tested, as depicted in Figure 9.
Figure 9: Released tags BMW Group (BMW Group, 2023)
Number of
measurements
in the test
series
Evaluation in
real practice
environments
These tags are approved within the BMW Group (BMW Group, 2023). The Miniweb tag stands out for its
low cost and is a standard tag at BMW. The Dogbone tag might capture the waves emitted by the antenna
better due to its larger surface area. Flag tags have only half of their underside with an adhesive surface,
causing a portion of the tag to be positioned away from the component and not directly in contact with the
material surface. The On-Metal tag has an insulating layer on its underside, creating a distance between
the coil contained in the tag and the component, which can reduce potential interference from metallic
components (Silva et al., 2018) (Weber, 2023). According to regulatory requirements, the power may not
exceed 2 watts (Europäische Union, 2019), which corresponds to a setting of 33 dBm for the antenna. A
Siemens SIMATIC RF680A antenna is utilized, which is particularly suitable for industrial applications and
approved within the BMW Group (SIEMENS, 2023; BMW Group, 2023).he antenna's polarization is circular.
The adjustment of settings and the evaluation of measurements are performed through a BMW internally
developed user interface of the Siemens software, connected to the antenna via LAN (BMW Group, 2023).
Within the scope of the PoC, all parameters from the experimental design (Table 8) are evaluated across all
component classi昀椀cation classes.
The insights gained from the PoC are assessed under real operating conditions. The tags are evaluated for
the de昀椀ned component classes (see section 4 component classi昀椀cation) at the production line.
For the evaluation, a mobile measurement station is utilized, which can be 昀氀exibly positioned at relevant
locations along the assembly line. A schematic representation of this measurement station can be found in
Figure 10.
Figure 10: Mobile measuring station (RFID)
