DNA and Noccela partner on industrial positioning

DNA, one of Finland’s leading telecom operators, and Noccela have announced a partnership to make industrial sites safer and more efficient. DNA sees Noccela’s ultra-wideband (UWB) positioning as a complement to its own IoT business.

What DNA offers

DNA offers the technology to its business customers as DNA Täsmäpaikannus (“precise positioning”). The service is based on Noccela’s High-Performance Ranging (HPR) UWB positioning and comes with tags, a customer portal, a mobile app and an API. Location data can travel over DNA’s mobile network (LTE or 5G), separate from the site’s own IT network.

What UWB positioning does in industry

Noccela devices measure distance from the time of flight of UWB radio signals. The same measurement served social-distancing badges during the pandemic. In industry it can:

• create moving warning zones around forklifts, cranes and automated guided vehicles, and fixed zones around hazards such as high-voltage test benches
• track pallets, tools and vehicles, so that manufacturing execution (MES), warehouse management (WMS) and ERP systems work with up-to-date location data
• carry sensor readings, such as acceleration and temperature, from tags on machines

Warnings complement physical separation, training and the machine’s own safety functions; they do not replace them.

Working together

DNA and Noccela have also worked together, with Nortal, on location data for Koskisen’s wood-processing factory.

Later in 2022, the two companies exhibited together at the Konepaja engineering trade fair in Tampere, from 28 November to 1 December, showing how real-time location and sensor data support lean manufacturing.

Read more about Noccela’s partners and about workplace safety with UWB.