JP6431434B2 - Temperature management device and temperature management system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a temperature management device and a temperature management system for managing an article in a desired temperature state.

  When delivering items such as fresh foods, processed foods, beverages, and pharmaceuticals that require refrigerated storage or frozen storage, select a delivery format using a temperature-controlled transport vehicle and make a delivery request to the delivery company. Is common. The inside of the carrier of the transport vehicle is divided into a plurality of cold storages having different set temperatures and is temperature-controlled, and workers often sort and load articles in appropriate cold storages according to their characteristics.

JP 2002-145422 A

  However, the temperature management in the above prior art has the following problems (1) to (3).

(1) Temperature management is performed mainly for the entire platform of the transportation vehicle or for each cold storage, and it is not possible to perform temperature management for each individual article.

(2) Management of the time required for the reloading of goods at the transport reloading point is performed by human operation (for example, the start / end time of the work recorded by the operator manually turning on / off the button of the dedicated mobile terminal) The recorded time is not always accurate, and the quality may deteriorate without noticing the possibility of temperature change after the article is taken out. .

(3) When a quality problem occurs in an article, it is impossible to verify the temperature change during transportation and the work time required for transshipment for each article.

A temperature management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is provided in a storage box that stores an article that is a target of temperature management, an article ID storage unit that stores an article ID that identifies the article, and the storage box A temperature management unit that detects the ambient temperature of the article in the interior with a temperature sensor and generates temperature data including the ambient temperature, the article ID, and a measurement time; and an upper limit value and a lower limit value of the ambient temperature. and setting the temperature condition storage unit that stores as set temperature condition, with the included in the temperature data comparing the ambient temperature and the set temperature conditions, and the presence or absence of determining temperature abnormality judging section of the temperature anomaly, prior SL product products An elapsed time measuring unit that measures an elapsed time after the article is taken out from the storage box based on a detection result of the tag, and stores an upper limit value of the elapsed time as a set time condition According to the determination results in the constant time condition storage unit, the time abnormality determination unit that compares the elapsed time and the set time condition to determine the presence or absence of a time abnormality, and the temperature abnormality determination unit and the time abnormality determination unit It is characterized by comprising status information indicating whether or not an abnormality has occurred on the article, and a display unit for displaying the temperature data in real time.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to manage the ambient temperature of an article and the transshipment operation time for each article, and to prevent quality deterioration of the article due to temperature changes.

The block diagram which shows the example of whole structure of the temperature management system using the temperature management apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. The figure explaining the work state in a transport transshipment point. The functional block diagram which shows the example of whole structure of the temperature management apparatus shown in FIG. The figure which shows the specific example of the temperature data which the temperature data storage part shown in FIG. 3 memorize | stores. The figure which shows the specific example of the preset temperature conditions which the preset temperature condition memory | storage part shown in FIG. 3 memorize | stores. The figure which shows the specific example of the setting time conditions which the setting time condition memory | storage part shown in FIG. 3 memorize | stores. The flowchart which shows the operation example of the temperature management apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the example of a data display of the storage box in one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the example of a data display of the storage box in one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the data display example of the storage box in the modification of one Embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, the temperature management apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration example of a temperature management system using a temperature management device 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, in the temperature management system according to the present embodiment, n (n ≧ 2) storage boxes 1 that store articles X1 to Xn (hereinafter referred to as “article X”) that are targets of temperature management. Each is provided with a temperature management device 10 having a temperature management function. The temperature management device 10 is connected to a network NW such as the Internet or a LAN by wireless or wired communication, and is connected to the temperature management server 2 that centrally manages data collected from the plurality of temperature management devices 10 via the network NW. ing.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the temperature management device 10 includes an arithmetic processing device 11, a storage device 12, a sensor 13, an input device 14, a display device 15, a communication device 16, and a power supply 17.

The arithmetic processing device 11 is a device such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that executes various arithmetic processing using programs, data, and the like stored in the storage device 12. The storage device 12 is a device such as a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), or a flash memory (Flash Memory) that stores programs and data. The sensor 13 is a device such as a temperature sensor that measures the ambient temperature of the article or an infrared sensor that detects opening and closing of the lid of the storage box 1. The input device 14 is a device such as a dip switch or a touch panel that receives input from the user. The display device 15 is a device such as a liquid crystal display that displays calculation results and a creation screen to the user. The communication device 16 is a device that performs data communication with the temperature management server 2 by wire or wireless according to a predetermined communication protocol. The power source 17 is a rechargeable battery or a commercial power source. In the present embodiment, for convenience of explanation, it is assumed that only one article X is stored in one storage box 1. Moreover, although the temperature management apparatus 10 is integrated with the storage box 1, it shall be provided with respect to the storage box 1 so that attachment or detachment is possible.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a working state at a transport transshipment point. Here, a temperature-controlled cool box (not shown) is provided on the loading platform 3 of the transport vehicle T, and a plurality of storage boxes 1 are stored in the cool box. The worker takes out the item X from the storage box 1 in the cool box, and stores the item X in the storage box 1 ′ in the building 4 which is a transport transshipment point. The storage box 1 ′ has the same structure as the storage box 1. That is, in the example of FIG. 2, the temperature management is temporarily terminated when the cold article X is taken out from the storage box 1 in the loading platform 3, but the storage box 1 and the storage box 1 ′ are wirelessly communicated with the temperature management server. 2 is connected via the network NW, when the article X is stored in the storage box 1 ′ of the building 4, the temperature management can be resumed based on the article ID. The management of the article movement time (transshipment work time) between the transport vehicle T and the building 4 will be described later.

  FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of the temperature management apparatus 10 shown in FIG. Here, the functions of the temperature management device 10 are an article ID reading unit 101, an article ID storage unit 102, a storage box ID storage unit 103, a temperature management unit 104, a temperature data storage unit 105, a set temperature condition storage unit 106, a set time. The condition storage unit 107, the setting input unit 108, the work state determination unit 109, the elapsed time measurement unit 110, the abnormality determination unit 111, the display unit 112, and the communication unit 113 are classified.

  The article ID reading unit 101 reads an article ID for identifying an article from an IC chip attached to the article. An example of the article ID reading unit 101 is a wireless tag reader. Incidentally, when the article ID is recorded in a barcode instead of in the IC chip, it corresponds to a barcode reader.

  The article ID storage unit 102 stores the article ID read by the article ID reading unit 101. Similarly, the storage box ID storage unit 103 stores a storage box ID for identifying the storage box 1. Examples of the article ID storage unit 102 and the storage box ID storage unit 103 include a storage device such as an IC chip.

  The temperature management unit 104 detects the ambient temperature of the article X inside the storage box 1 with a temperature sensor at a constant period, and generates temperature data including the ambient temperature, the article ID, the measurement time, and the like. In addition, when a plurality of temperature sensors are provided in the storage box 1, the temperature management unit 104 has a function of generating temperature data by performing temperature correction that averages the ambient temperature detected by each temperature sensor. It is possible to cope with the difference in measured temperature depending on the installation position.

  The temperature data storage unit 105 stores the temperature data generated by the temperature management unit 104 at a constant cycle. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a specific example of temperature data stored in the temperature data storage unit 105 shown in FIG. Here, storage box ID, article ID, article ambient temperature, measurement time (date / time), status, and temperature abnormality detection count (cumulative count) are illustrated as data items. In the storage box 1 with the storage box ID “BOX-001”, the article with the item ID “ITEM-001” is stored, and the measurement time ranges from “2015/2/1 15:30 to 3” to “2015/2 /”. 1 The status between 15:31:30 is “temperature control in progress” and the measurement time is between “2015/2/1 15:45:00” to “2015/2/1 15:45:30” The status is “Temperature Abnormal”.

  The set temperature condition storage unit 106 stores the upper limit value and the lower limit value of the ambient temperature of the article X as set temperature conditions. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of the set temperature condition stored in the set temperature condition storage unit 106 illustrated in FIG. 3. Here, the temperature upper limit value and the temperature lower limit value are shown as data items, the temperature upper limit value is set to “10 ° C.”, and the temperature lower limit value is set to “−10 ° C.”.

  The set time condition storage unit 107 stores an upper limit value of elapsed time in the transshipment work of articles, that is, a time limit as a set time condition. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a specific example of the set time condition stored in the set time condition storage unit 107 shown in FIG. Here, the time limit is set to “360 seconds”. In the present embodiment, “article transshipment work time” refers to returning to the transport vehicle T after the worker has taken out the article X from the storage box 1 of the cool box whose temperature is controlled within a predetermined temperature range. It is assumed that the elapsed time until arrival or the elapsed time until the article X is stored in the storage box 1 'of the building 4 as shown in FIG. The acquisition method of the time which returned to the transport vehicle T is arbitrary. For example, when the cover of the storage box 1 is closed, or when the arrival of the worker's transport vehicle T in the loading platform is detected, it can be automatically acquired based on the detection information of the sensor. Since it becomes time, another correction may be applied according to the presence or absence of the storage box 1 'at the destination.

  The setting input unit 108 sets an ambient temperature detection period, a set temperature condition, and a set time condition for the article X, respectively. When the set temperature condition or the like is not stored as electronic data, a dip switch may be used as a device corresponding to the setting input unit 108.

  The work state determination unit 109 determines that the work state is detected by detecting that the article X has been taken out of the storage box 1 or that the worker has returned to the transport vehicle T. In this embodiment, when the article X is taken out from the storage box 1 and the article ID reading unit 101 becomes unable to wirelessly communicate with the IC chip of the article X, the removal of the article X is detected, and the detection result is obtained. It is assumed that the elapsed time measuring unit 110 is output. When the detection result is input from the work state determination unit 109, the elapsed time measurement unit 110 measures the elapsed time since the item X is taken out from the storage box 1 in units of items.

  The abnormality determination unit 111 includes a temperature abnormality determination unit 111a and a time abnormality determination unit 111b. The temperature abnormality determination unit 111a compares the ambient temperature included in the temperature data with the set temperature condition to determine whether there is a temperature abnormality. In contrast, the time abnormality determination unit 111b compares the elapsed time with the set time condition to determine whether there is a time abnormality.

  The display unit 112 displays, in real time, status information and temperature data indicating the presence / absence of occurrence of an abnormality related to the article X (temperature abnormality / time abnormality) according to the determination results of the temperature abnormality determination unit 111a and the time abnormality determination unit 111b. The communication unit 113 transmits the temperature data generated by the temperature management unit 104 to the temperature management server 2 together with the status information.

  Hereinafter, the operation of the temperature management apparatus 10 configured as described above will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the temperature management apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. This process is started when the article X to be temperature controlled is stored in the storage box 1.

  First, when the article ID reading unit 101 reads an article ID from an IC chip attached to the surface of the article X (or the container of the article), the article ID is stored in the article ID storage unit 102 (S101).

  Next, the temperature management unit 104 detects the ambient temperature of the article inside the storage box 1 by a temperature sensor at a constant cycle, and generates temperature data including the ambient temperature, the article ID, the storage box ID, the measurement time, and the like. The temperature is stored in the temperature data storage unit 105 (S102).

  Next, the temperature abnormality determination unit 111a compares the upper limit value and the lower limit value of the set temperature stored in the set temperature condition storage unit 106 with the ambient temperature of the article X included in the temperature data, and the ambient temperature is the set temperature. It is determined whether or not the condition is satisfied (S103). Here, when it is determined that the ambient temperature satisfies the set temperature condition (S103: Yes), the status relating to the article X is updated to “temperature management in progress” and displayed on the display unit 112 (S104), and S106. Proceed to On the other hand, when it is determined that the ambient temperature does not satisfy the set temperature condition (S103: No), the status related to the article X is updated to “temperature abnormal” and displayed on the display unit 112 (S105). The process proceeds to S106.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a data display example of the storage box 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8A shows a case where the ambient temperature satisfies the set temperature condition. An article X1 with an article ID “ITEM-001” is accommodated in the storage box 1, the ambient temperature is “5.8 ° C.”, and a predetermined set temperature condition (here, 0 ° C. or more and 10 ° C. or less). )), The status is displayed as “Temperature Controlled”. On the other hand, FIG. 8B shows a display example when the set temperature condition is not satisfied. In FIG. 8B, since the ambient temperature is “10.5 ° C.” and the set temperature condition is not satisfied, the status is “temperature abnormal” and the detailed information is displayed as “over temperature upper limit”. Yes. In addition, the background color of the data display area is changed to indicate the occurrence of abnormality. Since the article X may be moved after the temperature abnormality is detected, the number of times the temperature abnormality is detected is separately recorded and displayed on the screen of the display device 15 together with the ambient temperature.

  In S <b> 106, the work state determination unit 109 determines whether or not the article X has been taken out from the storage box 1. If it is determined that the article X has been removed (S106: Yes), the process proceeds to S107. On the other hand, when it is determined that the article X has not been taken out (S106: No), the process returns to S102.

Next, the temperature management unit 104 updates the status of the article X to “moving article” based on the determination result in the work state determination unit 109 and displays the screen on the display unit 112 (S107).
Next, the elapsed time measuring unit 110 starts measuring the elapsed time based on the detection result from the work state determining unit 109 (S108).

  Next, the time abnormality determination unit 111b compares the set time condition limit time stored in the set time condition storage unit 107 with the current elapsed time, and determines whether the elapsed time satisfies the set time condition. Determination is made (S109). If it is determined that the elapsed time satisfies the set time condition (S109: Yes), the process proceeds to S111. On the other hand, when it is determined that the elapsed time does not satisfy the set time condition (S109: No), the status related to the article X is updated to “time abnormality” and displayed on the display unit 112 (S110). , Go to S111.

  In S111, the work state determination unit 109 determines whether the worker has completed the delivery or transshipment work. Specifically, detection information indicating that the article X has been stored in the storage box 1 ′ in the building 4, or that the worker who has finished delivery has returned to the transport vehicle T and closed the cover of the storage box 1. The work completion is determined based on the above. When it is determined that the worker has completed the delivery / transshipment work (S111: Yes), the temperature management unit 104 updates the status related to the article X to “work completed” and displays the screen on the display unit 112. Display (S112), and the process ends. At this time, on the storage box 1 ′ side in the building 4, data indicating that the status relating to the article is “under temperature control” is created. On the other hand, when it is determined that the worker has not completed the delivery / reloading work (S111: No), the process returns to S109, and the same processing is repeated until the work is completed.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a data display example of the storage box 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9A shows a case where the elapsed time after the article X is taken out from the storage box 1 satisfies the set time condition. The elapsed time after the article X2 with the article ID “ITEM-002” is taken out from the storage box 1 is “45 (s)”, and satisfies a predetermined set time condition (here, 360 seconds). Therefore, the status is displayed as “moving goods”. On the other hand, FIG. 9B shows a case where the elapsed time after the article X2 is taken out from the storage box 1 does not satisfy the set time condition. In FIG. 9B, since the set time condition of 360 seconds has been exceeded, the status is “time abnormality” and the detailed information is displayed as “exceeding the time limit”.

  Thus, according to the temperature management device 10 according to the present embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) The temperature management can be performed not only for the entire loading platform of the transport vehicle T or for each cold storage unit but also for each individual article.

(2) Since the time required for delivery or transshipment of goods at the transport transshipment point is automatically detected by detecting the work status of the worker, the start / end time of goods movement can be accurately grasped, It is possible to prevent quality deterioration of the article after the article is taken out.

(3) When a quality problem actually occurs in an article, the temperature change during transportation and the time required for the transshipment work can be verified for each article.

<Modification>
Hereinafter, some modified examples of the temperature management device according to the embodiment will be described.
In the above embodiment, for convenience of explanation, only one article X is stored in one storage box 1, but the number of articles stored in the storage box 1 is not limited to one. When a plurality of articles X are stored in the storage box 1, the temperature abnormality determination unit 111a and the time abnormality determination unit are set by setting the set temperature condition and the set time condition for each article ID according to the characteristics of the article. 111b can determine the presence or absence of abnormality for each article ID. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a data display example of the storage box 1 in a modification of the embodiment of the present invention. Here, it is shown that when a plurality of articles are stored in the same storage box 1, the display data is switched for each article by the operator pressing the article switching button. In FIG. 10A, the status of the product X1 with the product ID “ITEM-001” is “moving the product”, and in FIG. 10B, the status of the product X2 with the product ID “ITEM-002” is “under temperature control”. is there.

  In the above-described embodiment, “temperature management”, “temperature abnormality”, “article movement”, “time abnormality”, and “work completion” are shown as statuses related to the articles. However, these statuses are merely examples. It can be defined arbitrarily.

  Further, in the above embodiment, the article X is taken out from the storage box 1 and delivered or transshipped. However, a sensor for grasping the entrance / exit of the storage box 1 is separately provided on the cold storage side of the transport vehicle T. May be configured to move together with the box while being stored in the storage box 1. In this case, since it is not necessary to take out the article from the storage box 1, not only can the temperature change of the article during transportation be further suppressed, but also temperature data during the article moving work (reloading work) between the transport vehicle T and the building 4. It can be detected and recorded. Furthermore, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to install another storage box 1 'in the building 4 at the destination.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this embodiment is shown as an example and is not intending limiting the range of invention. The novel embodiment can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. This embodiment and its modifications are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalents thereof.

X ... article 1, 1 '... storage box 2 ... temperature management server 10 ... temperature management apparatus 11 ... arithmetic processing unit 12 ... storage device 13 ... sensor 14 ... input device 15 ... display device 16 ... communication device 17 ... power supply 101 ... article ID reading unit 102 ... article ID storage unit 103 ... storage box ID storage unit 104 ... temperature management unit 105 ... temperature data storage unit 106 ... set temperature condition storage unit 107 ... set time condition storage unit 108 ... setting input unit 109 ... working state Determination unit 110 ... elapsed time measurement unit 111 ... abnormality determination unit 111a ... temperature abnormality determination unit 111b ... time abnormality determination unit 112 ... display unit 113 ... communication unit

Claims (8)

A temperature management device provided in a storage box for storing articles to be temperature controlled,
An article ID storage unit for storing an article ID for identifying the article;
A temperature management unit that detects the ambient temperature of the article inside the storage box with a temperature sensor at a constant period, and generates temperature data including the ambient temperature, the article ID, and a measurement time;
A set temperature condition storage unit that stores an upper limit value and a lower limit value of the ambient temperature as set temperature conditions;
A temperature abnormality determination unit that compares the ambient temperature included in the temperature data with the set temperature condition and determines whether there is a temperature abnormality;
An elapsed time measuring unit for the article based on a detection result of the tag attached before Symbol object article to measure the elapsed time since retrieved from the storage box,
A set time condition storage unit that stores an upper limit of the elapsed time as a set time condition;
A time abnormality determination unit for comparing the elapsed time and the set time condition to determine the presence or absence of a time abnormality;
Status information indicating whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the article according to the determination result in the temperature abnormality determination unit and the time abnormality determination unit, and a display unit that displays the temperature data in real time,
A temperature management device comprising:   The temperature management apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a setting input unit configured to set the detection period of the ambient temperature in the temperature management unit, the set temperature condition, and the set time condition, respectively.   The temperature management apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the setting input unit sets the set temperature condition and the set time condition by a dip switch. The temperature data and the status information in a plurality of the storage boxes are collected and connected to a temperature management server for centralized management through a network,
The temperature management apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the communication unit transmits the temperature data and the status information to the temperature management server.   The temperature management unit performs temperature correction by averaging the ambient temperatures respectively detected by the plurality of temperature sensors when the storage box includes a plurality of the temperature sensors. The temperature management device according to any one of claims 4.   The temperature management device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the temperature management device is detachably attached to the storage box.   When a plurality of the articles are stored in the storage box, the set temperature condition and the set time condition are set for each of the article IDs, and the temperature abnormality determination unit and the time abnormality determination unit are set for each of the article IDs. The temperature management device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the presence or absence of an abnormality is determined. A plurality of temperature management devices respectively provided in a plurality of storage boxes for storing articles to be subjected to temperature management;
A temperature management server connected to the plurality of temperature management devices via a network and centrally managing data collected from the plurality of temperature management devices;
With
The plurality of temperature management devices include:
An article ID storage unit for storing an article ID for identifying the article;
A temperature management unit that detects the ambient temperature of the article inside the storage box with a temperature sensor at a constant period, and generates temperature data including the ambient temperature, the article ID, and a measurement time;
A set temperature condition storage unit that stores an upper limit value and a lower limit value of the ambient temperature as set temperature conditions;
A temperature abnormality determination unit that compares the ambient temperature included in the temperature data with the set temperature condition and determines whether there is a temperature abnormality;
An elapsed time measuring unit for the article based on a detection result of the tag attached before Symbol object article to measure the elapsed time since retrieved from the storage box,
A set time condition storage unit that stores an upper limit of the elapsed time as a set time condition;
A time abnormality determination unit for comparing the elapsed time and the set time condition to determine the presence or absence of a time abnormality;
Status information indicating whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the article according to the determination result in the temperature abnormality determination unit and the time abnormality determination unit, and a display unit that displays the temperature data in real time,
A communication unit for transmitting the temperature data and the status information to the temperature management server;
Each of which has a temperature management system.

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