B-787 Will Have Intelleflex RFID Labels on Maintenance-Significant Parts

Intelleflex Corp. will provide silicon chips to Boeing to enable RFID (radio frequency identification) "smart labels" for the maintenance-significant parts of its 787 Dreamliner.

Intelleflex will provide a 64-kilobit UHF (ultra high frequency) silicon chip for the 787's RFID labels, which will contain part identification as well as maintenance and inspection data in accordance with Air Transport Association standards.

Smart labels use RFID technology for enhanced data storage and collection, and offer significant advantages over bar coding, such as a no-line-of-sight requirement and a dynamic read/write capability.  Boeing believes they will reduce maintenance and inventory costs for its airplane customers.

Richard Bravman, Intelleflex's chairman and CEO, said the extended memory feature of his company's chip will house critical information about the history of marked parts such as current part number, date of manufacture, serial number and the country of origin.

The chips and appropriate design information will become available this month for parts suppliers, according to Intelleflex.  The finished label package (embedded silicon chip plus antenna) will be applied to the part during the suppliers own manufacturing process.

Intelleflex's tags and readers are designed to operate globally within the guidelines of internationally recognized standards.

Boeing has successfully completed two in-service evaluations of passive RFID smart labels on a FedEx MD-10 Freighter.  04-09-2006.

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