Avery Dennison introduces TT Sensor Plus to the European market

The credit card-sized label, which can either be inserted or adhered to a package, stores its data in a built-in NFC chip powered by a flexible battery. The TT Sensor Plus can be read and programed by any NFC enabled smartphone or other smart device.

Mary Greenwood, director of new technology and business development at Avery Dennison, said: ‘TT Sensor Plus uses the latest temperature data logging technology to provide brand owners the ability to collect data regarding the temperature ranges their goods are subjected to during shipping. The resulting analytics allow them to make informed decisions about whether a product’s quality has been preserved or compromised en route.

‘The use of NFC technology makes the accessibility of TT Sensor Plus data nearly universal.’

TT Sensor Plus was recently used to monitor the performance of small-scale, climate-controlled food and beverage shipments. In one such case, Desert Farms, a California-based provider of camel milk for the North American market, used TT Sensor Plus to track shipments from farms in the US Midwest to customers around the country to see if fresh milk shipments stayed below 40 degrees F (4 degrees C) and frozen milk shipments stayed below 0 degrees F (-18 degrees C) in a variety of seasonal and travel conditions. A test was conducted on shipments to customers in four US states, using two labels per shipment: one monitoring temperatures on the outside of a package and one monitoring temperatures on the inside. The test identified two temperature spikes outside of the acceptable range. One was the result of the untimely evaporation of the package’s dry ice, and the other from a cracking of the shipping package. Desert Farms is now using the data to help choose the best shipping durations for different parts of the country. In some cases, opting for second day delivery in warmer months and ground shipping in cooler months. This kind of information improves the efficiency of its operation.

‘This case demonstrates how TT Sensor Plus can help shippers of all kinds of perishable products select the best shipping approach that satisfies the needs both for freshness and cost effectiveness,’ said Greenwood.

Pharmaceutical products have been identified as another area of application for TT Sensor Plus, and Greenwood explained: ‘These labels can provide data to pharmaceutical companies that not only help safeguard the integrity and safety of individual shipments to patients. Compared to most data loggers in use today they can also cost-effectively be used to provide an ongoing picture of the dependability of the entire supply chain.’