Airline Trolley Electronic Seal
Our client came to us with an electronic airline trolley seal. The seal was a numerical display that changed each time the trolley was ‘sealed’ so that any unauthorised opening of the trolley could be detected. They wanted us to design the next generation of the seal which would also lock the trolley.
This included the design of all of the mechanical parts, electronics and the software the lock and seal. We also had to design the management system software which had to be operated in many different locations simultaneously by communicating with a central server over the internet.
Challenges
The lock and seal needed to be approved for aviation use and needed to be battery powered and therefore low power. Some of the main challenges were implementing secure RFID access control, making the device waterproof and meeting the stringent aviation approvals requirements. We also had to create a management system that was resilient to internet outages so that the system could be operated for prolonged periods without internet access.
Solution
Elelock designed the electronics, mechanicals and software for the electronic seal and successfully took the product through aviation approvals. We also set up a brand new production line to manufacture the seals and have since made many thousands of seals.
Benefits
The client was able to come to us with no design or production capability and we were able to work together right through to manufacture of the next generation product.