Evolution and Automation Application of Container Seals
“Seal’’ was born to prevent theft and peek when goods were shipped. Traditional seals, which are commonly known as mechanical seals, are installed to containers before shipping. Regardless of different roles in the supply chain and the stay of multiple locations, the integrity of the container can be identified immediately when the container is unloaded, then the carrier can complete the shipping formalities and complete the business.
Over the years, traditional mechanical seals have become the mainstream of the market. The concept of “electronic seals” originated from adding RFID tags in the design of mechanical seals, and the combination of them became so-called electronic seals. In the electronic seals, regardless of the types of label, the part of the mechanical seals are all in accordance with the ISO 17712 mechanical seal standards; in short, the electronic seal integrates the mechanical seal and the RFID device with location performance and wireless alerts.
Today's internationally used electronic seals are combined with mechanical seals and RFID tags. When used in container transportation, they can record container opening information between supply chain points and points to check whether it is illegally destroyed or its information being tampered. For example, if the electronic seal on the container stays intact during the shipment from the starting point to the destination, that means the safe arrival of the container in transit. As a result, the containers can be monitored, positioned, confirmed, or even analyzed for shipping conditions in the global supply chain. This information is collected, stored and shared through the RFID network. In addition, electronic seals also contribute to the validation of the automatic development trend in the supply chain, in which the electronic seals play their role and simplify the inspection procedures when going through green channel.
