In ExPD's ten-year history, they have been asked to develop many automatic identification systems, bar coding everything from documents through to car parts. But when they were asked to develop a bar coding system for rubber gloves, it was certainly a first!

But these are no ordinary rubber gloves. They are highly specialist gloves used in glove boxes containing radioactive material. British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) were looking to improve the safety at their nuclear waste recycling plant in Sellafield and wanted to be able to keep a closer track on their protective gloves. Because they are a critical element in protecting the safety of the plant workforce, it is essential that they are replaced regularly, and batch problems are quickly identified.

With this specification, they approached ExPD. The challenge for ExPD was to develop a pioneering database software system for tracking the history and usage of the protective gloves within the tight constraints of their unique environment. The system needed to allow data to be collected in potentially contaminated areas of the plant and be transmitted to the "clean" areas.

ExPD worked closely with BNFL to develop a system that has been called "GloveMaster". The suppliers of the gloves introduced parallel systems to ensure each glove carries a unique identification bar code. Using the bar codes, the system is able to identify how long the gloves have been in use, exactly where they have been used in the plant and flags up when they are due for renewal. Rigorous procedures are in place to ensure that they are renewed at the correct time as any faults in the glove or splits could cause contamination.

Each glove resides in a glove port, which is bar coded to uniquely identify its location. When a glove is changed a Dolphin data collection terminal is used to scan the glove, glove port, and reason for change. This information is uploaded to the database on a regular basis.

A comprehensive set of communication options are available to ensure that the Dolphin terminals do not need to be removed from areas where there is a high risk of contamination.

The system was designed by ExPD to provide a profusion of management information. A range of reports are on hand to assist with glove replacement planning and the database keeps track of every glove used on every glove port, and provides a full history across the entire plant.

The system also enables possible batch faults to be identified quickly and preventative action taken. There are extensive search facilities, which enable the data to be grouped and filtered and reported by virtually any fields in the database, which can be easily exported to Excel, HTML etc.

Eric Greenwood of BNFL Thorp Production Support said, "GloveMaster is of immense benefit to us, helping us to track the use of every glove used in our processes. Safety is of paramount importance in this industry and GloveMaster helps us to continue to ensure our procedures are of the highest standard possible".