Axcess International Develops Ammonia Detection and Alerting System
AXCESS International Inc., a leading provider of Active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems today announced the general availability of a unique, distributed ammonia detection and alerting system based upon its battery-powered RFID long range wireless tagging technology. The RFID system provides constant monitoring of harmful gas levels from sources which would be potentially toxic or explosive, if undetected leaks occur.
"To meet the industry's growing demand for identifying ammonia levels while reducing false alarms, we developed this new ammonia detection and alerting system," said Allan Griebenow, president and CEO of AXCESS Inc. "Anhydrous Ammonia is commonly used as a refrigeration component in the frozen foods and poultry processing industries. When false positives occur in these industries, production lines are stopped, costing the companies involved a significant amount of revenue. The new solution allows for concentrated sensors which can corroborate events with several clustered sensors, thereby reducing the incidence of false positive readings and increasing customers ROI. Additionally, this solution meets the need for flexible, low cost, distributed sensing of hazardous material in virtually any environment and performs real time analysis, monitoring, and alerting, and supports immediate evidentiary investigation. The solution has been successfully demonstrated within the industry and has received positive feedback."
The use of portable ammonia sensors and a wireless monitoring network provides an easily installed and cost effective blanket detection coverage area where expensive hard-wired systems fall short. The battery powered RFID architecture allows for sensors being easily populated in greater quantities at less cost, thereby increasing protective coverage. The TCP/IP transmission capability of the AXCESS ActiveTag receivers allows for transmission of sensor alerts to personnel in containment centers via email and pagers during an incident. The use of active RFID tags to transmit detection signals combines with the detectors for a very low cost wireless monitoring network, and is able to analyze critical data from a vast array of detectors and alerts responders immediately.
The ActiveTag RFID unit is integrated into the ammonia detector to receive and transmit an alarm brought on by the presence of an increase in harmful ammonia around the device. The system can also detect the presence of methane, propane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and ethylene oxide. A single detection unit or multiple units networked together can be monitored by an infrastructure of RFID receivers connected to the network or the Internet using AXCESS' OnlineSupervisor (e/OLS) software or a third party control system, via links to the SQL database. The software can also correlate alerts from multiple sensors in an area, to help filter out false alarms. Alarms are displayed visually and graphically on a map and the alert notifications include alarms, pages and emails to local personnel and authorities.
AXCESS' OnlineSupervisor software can support multiple types of sensors including temperature, pressure, movement, intrusion, biological and radiation. The ActiveTag RFID system allows for sensor alerts to be sent to a host in serial (ASCII) format or in standard Wiegand to a control panel. The system is integrated with AXCESS' Prism Video line of network-based digital video products. This video verification of an alarm enables safety and security personnel to quickly view an actual event and allow them to provide quicker, more precise response and intervention.
