Smashtag Chill has a shelf life of 12 months and a minimum operating time of 6 months above 0°C, if operating below 0°C it will likely last at least 4 months but it does depend on how cold.
Smashtag Chill is designed to record temperatures every 10 minutes, and this information is date stamped and stored in the device. If required Smashtag can alternatively be re-programmed to take readings every minute, though this will reduce battery lifetime.
Smashtag Chill is taking temperature readings on a continuous basis (see above), but is intended to only download this data on receipt of the goods being monitored. There are solutions available that allow continuous on-demand surveillance (usually also including GPS-tracking) but these are expensive, cumbersome and may sometimes encounter radio communications issues. Smashtag Chill is aimed at providing an easy-to-use, cost effective and pragmatic solution to temperature monitoring.
Smashtag is intended to be used in conjunction with an easy-to-use App for both Android and iPhone devices (mobiles or tablets). If this is not convenient or unavailable then: – the Smashtag Chill tag can simply be set into operation (with default settings) by pressing the button on the tag at despatch, and – on receipt, the recorded temperature data can be downloaded from the Smashtag Chill using any Bluetooth-enabled computer or device.
The temperature sensor on the Smashtag Chill tag is specified to ±0.5°C. It may well be that the variation in temperature at different physical points in the shipment may in fact exceed this (for example between the centre and the inner walls of the packaging), so for a particularly sensitive product you may wish to use multiple Smashtag Chill tags in different parts of the shipment – or by way of a ‘control’ put a Smashtag Chill on the outer wall of the packaging to monitor the ambient temperatures over the duration of the journey. As standard Smashtag Chill records temperature every 10 minutes (see above), as it is not expected that significant variations will occur more frequently in most applications.
Smashtag Chill was considered from the outset to be a ‘green’ device: – Using an alkaline (non-lithium) battery means that the tags are safe to be used in the holds of aircraft and also can be recycled or (except for CA) included in standard household rubbish. – Smashtag Chill is an excellent way of verifying whether you are using too much thermal packaging, and/or whether you are shipping temperature-sensitive products in the most efficient way. For commercial users, Smashtag Chill is possible (in quantity) to be recycled for re-use by replacement of the battery and secure erasing of the memory device containing the logged temperature data.
