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The Where and Who of Shipment Monitoring

Shippers view data monitors and loggers as cross-checks to packaging performance as well as investigative tools for shipping environments. Yet since environmental conditions can’t be predicted for all events, and packaging might not always perform as expected, monitors are a necessary component of thermal packaging.

“We feel that every package should have some kind of monitor. You usually design and validate a package as to what it would reasonably be exposed to 90% of the time. You cannot design for 100% occurrence,” says Sandy Cook, president, Thermal Packaging Solutions (Ocean, NJ).

Temperature monitors and loggers have become less expensive. Companies have advanced technology with loggers small enough to be embedded close to the surface of a package, allowing reading without opening the package. These measure mean kinetic temperatures (MKT), says Cook.

KoolWatch, an inexpensive disposable digital temperature indicator from Cold Chain Technologies (Holliston, MA), is a small unit that determines whether a shipment ever exceeded time and temperature boundaries. The KoolWatch is programmed at Cold Chain Technologies to user-defined parameters. It can be set to go out of bounds or “trip” on one reading or be programmed to allow for excursion temperatures and times depending on the user’s needs. The start button can be used to preview the parameter settings. If a trip occurs, the user can determine when and at what temperature it went out of range.

“We have seen nothing but growth for this product since we launched it last year. It is part and parcel of healthcare companies’ increasing concern that they are shipping properly,” says president Larry Gordon.

TCP Reliable Inc. (Edison, NJ) offers the Xi3 one-time-use, lightweight monitor. The monitor shows whether the product stayed within acceptable range with an LED indicator. Data can be downloaded to a PC for a detailed graphing of readings, says marketing manager Bill Hingle.

The latest advances are occurring in the area of wireless transmission. “I think it is going to become very popular. You can read a shipment and find an anomaly [without line of sight] without going to a specific package,” Cook says.

Tutogen Medical Inc. (Alachua, FL), a manufacturer of bioimplants and surgical medical devices, and Steelgate (Brandenton, FL), a cryogenic storage company, are using Marathon Products Inc.’s (Oakland, CA) EDL-RF (Electronic Data Logger) wireless temperature-data-collecting monitors and software, says Marathon president Jon Nakagawa.

EDL-RF allows for real time monitoring of low-temperature refrigerators, warehoused products, and mobile applications, replacing manual inspection and documentation. The system’s data loggers feature two-way 900-MHz or 2.4-MHz radios for ranges exceeding 900 ft and up to three miles. Up to 65,000 devices may be configured with unique IDs and information. Readers are affixed to PCs. Internal software is a CRM tool for managing the cold chain. Functions include real-time temperature display, high-low alarm settings for continuous or cumulative results, data sorting and calculating statistics such as MKT, and options for alarm notification by text or cell phone.

“EDL-RF is designed for refrigerated units and warehouse container or box level monitoring. For packages, we recommend using our Micro-dl programmable data loggers,” Nakagawa says.

A user could poll enroute trucks to learn shipment histories before unloading and “pinpoint and ascribe liability if the temperature wasn’t maintained. You are reducing administration time as the information is electronically collected, distilled, and archived,” Nakagawa says.

Lansmont Corp., (Monterey, CA) is bringing the dimension of GPS tracking to wireless data monitoring with the launch of a second-generation model of its Saver environmental recorder. The Saver 3X90 is a “complete redesign” offered at half the price of the original, for continuous monitoring of shock, vibration, temperature, and humidity, says Dave Huntley, general manager.

“The 3X90 is a full waveform recorder. It records and stores actual digital snapshots of events, sampling the environment up to 5000-times-a-second continuously. We can then export those waveforms and replicate them in our labs,” he says.

Lansmont has enhanced its SaverXware analysis software providing the ability to create a database of multiple trip files to compile and analyze as a whole.

GPS provides the ability to say where damaging events occur. The 3X90 can be linked with a GPS/cell module. Satellite links the Saver through a cellular network to proprietary mapping software.

“The result is real-time notification when things go wrong during shipment. The GPS device pinpoints the exact location, the Saver 3X90 determines what took place and whether or not the event exceeds user-defined alarm criteria. If the alarm criteria is met, the 3X90 will transmit an SMS message to our server or those interested with the appropriate information about the event within seconds of it taking place,” Huntley says.

Shippers may receive data through Lansmont, or through cell phone notifications.
“Now you are able to say not only what occurred, but also when it took place and how it happened, regardless of how close you are to the payload. You can abort a shipment, assign liability, and draw claims on it immediately,” he says.

Copyright ©2005 Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News