Tiny temperature monitors yield impressive results in logistics chain

ESCATEC is building nearly a third of a million temperature monitors a year for Berlinger & Co of Switzerland. The units monitor temperature of goods in transit and storage to ensure that they have not been subjected to temperatures that are outside of pre-set boundaries. A key use is for medical supplies such as vaccines and drugs that can spoil if exposed to wrong temperatures in the logistics chain. This is important at the end of the distribution network, which may be in a remote location where it is hard to ensure that storage temperatures are maintained. Other temperature-sensitive markets include foods such as ice cream and beer. The devices are small—similar to a stack of about six credit cards, which means that they can be deployed covertly if required as a double-check of logistics agent records. “We went to ESCATEC with an initial prototype,” said Corneliu Tobescu, production and innovation manager at Berlinger. “The R&D team in ESCATEC Malaysia then designed it for high-volume manufacture in ESCATEC’s Malaysian facilities. We are very impressed with the way that they considered all the aspects from the availability and sourcing of components, right through to ensuring that the device used the minimum amount of labour to assemble. As these are one-time-use disposable devices, it is vital to keep the manufacturing costs as low as possible. But on the other hand, they must be very reliable as they must function properly. Lives depend on vaccines not being spoiled in transit.”