B&W Pantex Demonstrates Magnetic Auto-ID Technology to Track Material in Secure Areas

AMARILLO, Texas — When it comes to tracking the nearly 50,000 custom tools, 11,500 shipping containers and millions of records, parts and components at Pantex, barcodes and physical inventories may be making way for a more modern way to manage material. B&W Pantex piloted magnetic auto-ID technology — the Advanced Inventory and Materials Management (AIMM) pilot — to identify, track and inventory the plant’s material assets in even the most restrictive security areas.

When RuBee™ tags were affixed to items such as tooling and chemicals, RuBee antennas enabled users to view their movement on a computer screen as they migrated through the pilot test areas — while ensuring transmitted information stayed controlled within the bounds of Pantex facilities. Pantex became the first site in the U.S. DOE/NNSA enterprise to install RuBee in a secure Limited Area, and then the first to install and evaluate it in a Material Access Area — the most restrictive security area.

“Pantex, like other facilities across the nuclear security enterprise, has been searching for better solutions to the issues with property management for years,” said Leesa Duckworth, AIMM project lead for Pantex. “The problem has been finding a solution that could pass the high levels of scrutiny required for operation in Pantex work environments.”

RuBee is now employed at the Pantex Armory for gun issuance and receipt. Project findings were published in the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management Conference Journal, and the full DOE white paper is available on this site.