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What is Fleet Management System?

Fleet management system deals with the proper management of the entire vehicle fleet of a particular organization. Fleet management system incorporates a wide range of functions related to commercial motor vehicles including cars, vans and trucks.

It deal with various technicalities involved with the vehicles, the majority being financing, maintenance, driver management, speed management, fuel management and safety insurance of the vehicles.

The system is the brainchild of six European manufacturers namely Daimler AG, MAN AG, Scania, Volvo, DAF Trucks and IVECO. The telematics i.e. proper tracking and diagnostics of vehicles is also taken care of by this system.

Working Plan of Fleet Management System

Tracking of vehicles forms the major core of the fleet management system. This particular application takes the help of GPS tracking system, though it may also be based on “GLONASS” or a Cellular triangulation platform. After the location, direction and speed of the desired vehicle are calculated, various other trackers transmit data to pre-designed fleet management system software.

Data transmission modes are both terrestrial and satellite. Satellite based tracking provides the distinct advantage of working in remote areas without any major hindrances. The software can even be applied in monitoring the course of ships sailing in the sea.

Cargo booking, crewing, maintenance and other minor operations can be dealt effectively via this system. CARCAP modeling resources are sued to adjudge the working standards of the system and necessary replacements should be done accordingly.

Advantages of Fleet Management System

Fleet management system provides the option of gathering information about mileage and fuel consumption by connecting to the vehicle’s onboard computer. It can then be used to monitor the driver behavior with ease. Fleet management system also helps in performing various vehicle operations ranging from driver profiling, trip profiling, dispatch, vehicle efficiency measurement etc. it even allows for geo-fencing and active disabling.

A particular site can be constructed to lodge in all the detailed information about the vehicle’s current diagnostics. The recent development in the fleet management system software has made it possible to have an over-the-air security and control mechanism of the fleet vehicles. It facilitates disabling the vehicle at any desired location or time. It thus helps in quick recovery of stolen or rogue vehicles and also cuts down the chances of missing cargo.

The security application also provides trusted users the privilege of controlling the vehicles from remote locations by preventing the engine from starting, moving or slowing down.

It is the information age. No system in the world is it commercial, political or technical can function without being fed data. Data can well be called the fodder that keeps these systems running. Apart from the amount of data another factor that is of even greater value is the timeliness of data. The right amount of data fed at the appropriate time facilitates any changes in strategy as may be required.

An extremely important tool in this direction is the advent of telemetry systems. The systems enable gathering of data from a distance. This data helps in the calculated adjustment of strategy and policies.

What are telemetry systems?

The word telemetry is derived from the Greek root words ‘tele’ and ‘metron’ meaning remote and measurement respectively.  Telemetry systems enable the gathering of data as information from a remote location. Often the target of a telemetry system is a moving object, like a racing car, an aircraft, etc. The mode of communication is usually through radio or infrared. However, there are modern systems employing GSM and SMS systems.

These networks are present almost everywhere and are cheap, hence making telemetry systems cheaper. There are two way telemetry systems that not only collect data but can also send control signals back to the target. This acts as a way of remotely controlling and making adjustments.

Telemetry systems generally use pulse position modulation (PPM), pulse duration modulation (PDM) or pulse code modulation (PCM) systems.  Systems have been perfected through generations of development and applications in some of the toughest areas.

Applications of telemetry systems

Telemetry systems have widespread applications in the most cutting edge environments

Motor Racing: Telemetry is an integral part of modern motor racing. Telemetry systems enable teams to monitor the car’s progress and analyze data from it. This data includes tyre temperatures, engine temperature and condition, electronics, airflow, etc. All this information helps the team on the pit wall to know exactly how fast a car on the track can go and how to make it faster. It can also help the team to change its strategy for the race.

Two-way telemetry enables the team to make changes in the car from the pit wall. For example, if the engine is overheating, the team may decide to cut the revs of the engine. This may limit the power available, but will preserve the engine. In modern racing, a good telemetry is a prerequisite for success.

Space stations: Space stations are almost synonymous with telemetry systems. Huge amounts of information are sent from the space shuttle.  It is this information that helps guiding and control of the space shuttle by the earth based station.

Agriculture and Water management: Telemetry systems are gaining applications in agriculture. Weather and soil data are of importance. Also, water management systems require telemetry.

For an avid follower of sports, perhaps the most painful moments are those when the game is in progress and he is in no position to know what is going on in the field.

Perhaps the soccer maniacs are the people who suffered most from this, as unlike in other sports, soccer is the one game where the entire scenario can change in a matter of minutes.
Thankfully, modern technology has found a solution to this problem in the form of Livescore, enabling the access to the latest scores, anywhere and anytime.

Conveniences offered by Livescore

Livescore can be accessed by any person using his computer or cell phone. Most of the mobile service providers offer schemes that deliver the score updates at regular intervals, thus helping the man to know what is going on in the field.

Some internet sites also keep a track of the events in the field in real time and the Livescore can also be found out through these sites. The technologies used are the same as that are used in broadcasting live coverage of the match.

For Livescore accessing, the internet has the advantage that the information it provides is much elaborate than the score updates sent by the cellular network provides.

However, mobile updates are more convenient as the user does not have to access the internet and can continue to get the updates irrespective of whether he is in the vicinity of a computer.

Some networks have started to combine this feature in their services. By subscribing their offer, messages are sent directly to the mobile without the user needing to access the web.

Earth, a so called lonely planet in terms of life, this speck of dust when compared to the whole of the universe and its numerous heavenly bodies is the only habitable place known to man. But still it is endowed with the boon of sufficient amounts of all necessary substances and infrastructures to support all the varied forms of life on the planet and their various needs.

It is a Pandora’s Box of animated and inanimate things which make life on this planet interesting and wholesome. It also fuels man in his never ending search for knowledge and thirst for progress which goads him to explore new dimensions and search for more and more answers to his interminable questions. Since the 18th century, when the industrial age started, human population has increased exponentially to uncontrollable proportions.

He had to manufacture things on a very large scale and at a very fast rate. Hence man started to exploit earth’s natural resources with increased vehemence and explored its varied riches. The Pandora’s Box had been opened.

Metals, valuable rocks, plants, water, soil, different rocks, minerals – all were dug up and used to quench man’s ever-increasing greed. Eventually man discovered more and more uses for these resources. One example can be cited in the field of magnets available from the earth, the ferrite magnets, the most commonly available type.

Knowing about Ferrite Magnets

Ferrites are chemical compounds with ferric oxide as their main component. They are available in many forms. Among others they are used as soft ferrites and hard ferrites. Soft ferrites are non magnetic but they are used as cores in transformers and other equipments.

Hard ferrites on the other hand are used to form permanent magnets. They are formed by the process of sintering and are composed of barium or strontium ferrites. These magnets have many advantages. They are very resistant to demagnetization. In fact they have stronger magnetic fields than magnetized iron itself.

And they are available at very low rates in the market which makes their use in everyday life even more feasible. They are very hard and brittle and prone to chipping and cracking. Hence they require very specialized and careful machining techniques when they are to be used in equipments.

Where and how to find Ferrite Magnets

Since they are available at dirt cheap rates, ferrite magnets enjoy a very wide application domain. In motor cars to loudspeakers, aero planes to toys, ferrite magnets are the most widely type of magnets today and have mostly displaced alnico magnets.

Although not as effective as rare earth magnets, it can be used as electromagnetic picks for guitars. But their application is becoming more limited with passing days as stronger magnets are flooding the market. Still ferrite magnets hold a special place in the manufacturing world.

As far as human knowledge goes, this planet, Earth, is the only place in the whole universe with life in it. Comparatively this planet is but a speck of dust in contrast to other heavenly bodies or the space between them.

Still this blue-green globe contains all the necessary substances and infrastructures to support such flourishing and varied life forms as are found all over the planet.

It is our one and only home. It is a definitive Pandora’s Box, concealing riches which have enabled mankind to reach such mammoth proportions of progress in everyday life.  Up until the 18^th century man lived in basically a crude way by modern standards.

With the advent of the Industrial age, human population began to grow exponentially and hence man had to produce or manufacture goods on a very large scale and very fast. Thus the Earth’s natural resources were called into action to supply the materials for building the cities and factories.

The Pandora’s Box had been opened and it showered man with riches. Oil, coal, minerals, expensive stones and metals: everything the Earth could give up was used to alleviate man’s living standard. One such gift is rare earth magnets.

Alloys of rare earth metals like neodymium and samarium are forged into permanent magnets. These are called rare earth magnets. They were first developed in the 1970’s and are comparatively much stronger than ferrite or alnico magnets. They are very brittle and also corrode easily. Hence they are mostly plated to protect from damage.

The name can be particularly misleading as these magnets are anything but rare. In fact they are almost as abundant as lead or tin and are used in almost every aspect of day to day life. Because of their small size they are very easy to use in various forms and application fields. The property that sets them apart is their high anisotropy which produces a small but very strong magnetic field which can be used in a wide range from military weaponry to mechanical wok-out devices.

Care for Rare Earth Magnets

As with all other things of benefit, rare earth magnets come with a catch. Rare earth magnets exert a greater force than normal and hence entail more usage hazards. A body part pinched between two pieces of such a magnet and may even cause broken bones.

There have been extreme cases where children who have swallowed such a magnet have had a folded digestive tract pinched between very small chips of the magnet.  They can be extremely damaging to magnetic media like hard drives and credit cards.

To all intents and purposes they should be kept away from any living body and handled with care.

A Neodymium magnet also known as Neo magnet is a type of rare earth magnet. A rare earth magnet is a strong permanent magnet made of alloys of rare earth elements. Neodymium magnets (Nd₂Fe₁₄B) are the most widely used ones and are made from an alloy of Neodymium (Nd), Iron (Fe) and Boron (B).

Although classified as a rare earth element Neodymium is not so rare and is abundantly available in the earth’s crust.  It has a tetragonal crystalline structure with higher magnetic energy storing capacity than other commercial rare earth magnets like samarium cobalt.

History and Production

The compound Nd₂Fe₁₄B was discovered in 1982 by General Motors Corporation and Sumitomo special Metals in an attempt to lessen the cost of the then used commercial SmCo permanent magnets. It is manufactured mainly by two processes – By rapid solidification or by the sintered magnet process.

The sintered variety of Neodymium magnets is vulnerable to corrosion; however, this problem can be addressed by applying a layer of protective coating over the magnet. At present some of the major producers of sintered Neodymium magnets are China and Japan accounting for around 45,000 to 55,000 tons of the magnet each year.

When compared to other permanent magnets on the basis of their magnetic properties Neodymium magnets have a higher remanence (measure of the strength of the magnetic field) and coercivity (material’s resistance to becoming demagnetized) but have a lower curie Temperature (the temperature at which the magnet loses its magnetic properties).

Applications and Hazards

Neodymium magnets have a huge application in the electronic industry where strong permanent magnets are required and their greater strength allows the use of lighter and smaller magnets.

They find their application in tools like head actuators for computer hard disks, magnetic resonance imaging, permanent magnet motors like servo motors, synchronous motors, spindle motors, stepper motors etc. The greater magnetic strength of this variety of magnets has also made possible their use in areas where they were not used before, for example in magnetic jewelry clasps etc.

Despite these numerous applications there are certain hazards associated with the Neodymium magnets caused due to the greater force exerted by the rare earth magnets.

A human body part pinched between two permanent magnets of this variety longer than a few centimeters can be seriously injured with some cases resulting in broken bones. Also the strong magnetic data may be hazardous to electronic devices as it may erase magnetic data in devices such as floppy disks and credit cards.

However careful use of these magnets will result in myriad applications and these most certainly are the way of the future.