Tuesday, February 15, 2022
EPAL or the European Pallet Association e.V. (EPAL), along with the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML, and DACHSER, an international logistics provider, has engaged in investigation of the current status of network coverage for various LPWAN technologies in Europe.
In the future, load carriers like EPAL monetary unit pallets and vehicles, robots and machines concerned in provision can communicate directly with one another and exchange data and knowledge. The precondition for this web of Things (IoT) is very purposeful wireless technology with low energy consumption and a good vary (LPWAN: Low-Power, Wide-Area Networks) still as seamless network coverage.
50 EPAL Euro pallets were each fitted with five different trackers from the five different wireless technologies (NB-IoT, LTE-M, Sigfox, 2G, 3G). The EPAL Euro pallets were then transported by DACHSER across 24 countries in Europe. After one month, a total distance of 148,000 kilometres, and the transmission by wireless of more than two million data packages, the EPAL Euro pallets were returned to Fraunhofer IML’s headquarters in Dortmund. The trackers have since been analysed and the results are now available:
There are already very good LPWAN technology wireless networks in many European countries which offer a good communication platform for IoT devices such as EPAL Euro pallets with trackers. However, there are still deadspots in the LPWAN networks which means the current recommendation is a combination of NB-IoT, LTE-M, Sigfox and the classic mobile phone networks (2G – 4G).
Michael Brandt, Head of Logistics & Innovation: “The EPAL Euro pallet is the cornerstone of goods and transport logistics in Europe. We are therefore preparing to serialise EPAL Euro pallets with QR codes with an option for installing trackers. The joint project with Fraunhofer IML and DACHSER is supplying us with valuable information which we will be able to take into consideration as we move this project forward.”
Tags: epal, EPAL pallets, FRAUNHOFER, LPWAN technology, woodworking and manufacturing, woodworking Europe, woodworking industry
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