Here at ORNL we transitioned from labeling chemicals with barcodes to RFID tags several years ago for chemical inventory purposes.  Using the RFID tag opens the door to a huge number of possibilities (i.e. storing additional chemical information in tag,  active locating capability,  passive inventory collection, etc.) and provides the really nice and safer feature of not having to touch every chemical container in the lab.  There are some drawbacks including financial (i.e. startup costs) and technical (RFID signal attenuation on metal containers…), but on the whole this has been a really good thing for us and we are looking into expanding the use of this technology into other efforts (sample and equipment management). 

 

Here are some presentations about what we have done as well as what another lab has done with this technology.

-          http://www..efcog.org/wg/esh/events/Spring_2014_Mtg/CSLMSG_Mtg/Sickau%20The%20Latest%20in%20RFID%20for%20Managing%20Chemicals.pdf

-          http://www.efcog.org/wg/esh/events/Spring_2014_Mtg/CSLMSG_Mtg/RFID%20at%20PNNL%20FINAL%20140320.pdf

-          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7fX3nqHhGI

 

 

On a similar topic… We are organizing a symposium on Chemical/Sample/Asset management that will occur at the Spring 2015 Meeting in San Diego and the hope is to have folks who have successfully implemented these kind of solutions talk about their process and what works/what doesn’t.   If there is anyone out there that has a unique solution or approach and would be interested in presenting… please contact me.

 

Joe Pickel

 

 

 

 

Dear Learned Ones….

 

We are interested in a more efficient & accurate system to read the label on a bottle with a mobile device for chemical inventory.

 

Our current practice of using people to read the label on the container and type in the data is slow, prone to errors and a waste of human capital.

 

Are any of you aware of any tool that can be used to read a container label and identify/capture the information?

 

If you know of a company able and willing to develop such an interface please share that information with me as well..

 

Sincerely,

-Russ

 

Russell Vernon, Ph.D.
Director
Environmental Health & Safety
University of California, Riverside
900 University Ave
Riverside, CA 92521
www.ehs.ucr.edu
russell.vernon**At_Symbol_Here**ucr.edu
Direct (951) 827-5119
Admin (951) 827-5528
Fax (951) 827-5122

Taking a trip overseas? 

Access Location Intelligence: https://ermsp.ucop.edu/uctrip and enter your UC Net ID