Gas cylinder tracking, or LPG tracking, plays an important role in ensuring the safe and efficient management of gas cylinders. These cylinders are used across many industries, from manufacturing to healthcare, and can pose significant safety risks if not handled or monitored correctly.
Gas cylinder tracking presents unique challenges. These high-value, high-risk assets operate in harsh environments and must meet strict safety standards. Companies can proactively address safety risks, prevent unauthorized access or theft, and minimize losses or damage by monitoring the location and condition of each cylinder.
Every gas cylinder application is different. A one-size-fits-all approach rarely works. With a custom tracking solution tailored to your operations, you can address these challenges and fully realize the safety, security, and efficiency benefits of gas cylinder tracking.
Gas cylinders are typically constructed from steel or aluminium, both of which block or degrade GPS, cellular and Bluetooth signals. Ensuring consistent communication from a tracking device is extremely difficult when the device is mounted directly onto the cylinder body. This limits where the device can be placed, making external mounting a necessity.
Gas cylinders are used across a wide range of industries and are constantly exposed to impacts, vibration, extreme temperatures, moisture, and harsh chemicals. Tracking devices must therefore be ultra-rugged and built to operate reliably in these demanding conditions. This requires IP68-rated housing, durable internal components, and a robust, industrial-grade design that ensures long-term performance in any environment.
Mounting a tracking device to an LPG cylinder presents several challenges. The cylinder’s metal body can interfere with signal transmission if the device is mounted directly on its surface. In addition, the device must not cover regulatory labels, barcodes, or certification markings, and permanent fixtures such as welding are not permitted. These constraints limit mounting options and often require a tailored, case-by-case approach.
Gas cylinders are often idle for extended periods of time, potentially years. This means battery powered trackers need to have an ultra-low powered design, the ability to customize movement parameters and the ability to survive in cold storage or harsh environments.
Tracking devices must be compact, low-profile and unobtrusive to avoid being caught on equipment, damaged when handling or interfering with device handling and storage.
Gas cylinder fleets can range from a few hundred to tens of thousands of assets, making unit economics important. Tracking solutions must be affordable enough for the whole fleet whilst delivering the required functionality.
Gas cylinders are classified as precious vessels and are strictly regulated. Added hardware must not compromise cylinder certifications, pressure vessel integrity or interfere with mandated labels.
LPG and gas cylinders are exposed to a variety of environments, ranging from outdoor storage yards, warehouses, cold rooms, high-humidity sites, transport vehicles and more.
Tracking devices need to perform consistently across a diverse range of temperatures, locations, weather conditions and handling scenarios.
While Digital Matter doesn’t currently offer a dedicated off-the-shelf solution for LPG cylinder tracking, our hardware and flexible platform provide a strong foundation for custom development.
We work closely with partners to design and deliver tailored tracking solutions for unique use cases. If you’re looking for ways to streamline your cylinder tracking, please contact us, we’d love to build the right solution with you.
Tracking gas cylinders offers several benefits for businesses that handle and distribute these containers. A cylinder management system will improve efficiency, reduce costs, and ensure compliance with regulations, making it an essential practice for businesses that rely on these containers.
Using GPS devices for LPG tracking can provide several benefits for businesses. It can improve safety by ensuring the proper handling and transportation of gas cylinders through accurate tracking of their location, contents, and maintenance history.
Additionally, it can increase efficiency by allowing businesses to monitor their gas cylinder inventory in real-time, enabling them to optimize their operations and reduce the risk of running out of gas. This can lead to cost savings by reducing the number of lost or stolen cylinders and avoiding unnecessary cylinder purchases due to poor inventory management.
The real-time data obtained from GPS trackers for cylinder management can provide greater control over inventory, improved safety, increased efficiency, cost savings, and improved customer service.
Using gas cylinder trackers for government compliance protocols can provide several benefits for businesses. A cylinder management system can provide accurate and real-time information about the location of gas cylinders, ensuring compliance with government regulations regarding the transportation and storage of hazardous materials.
This can help businesses avoid fines and penalties associated with non-compliance. LPG tracking can also provide alerts when cylinders are nearing the end of their useful life, enabling businesses to replace them in a timely manner and avoid the risks associated with expired cylinders.
Additionally, information gathered from cylinder management systems can provide a clear and auditable chain of custody, allowing businesses to track their movement from the point of delivery to the point of use, ensuring compliance with government regulations, and providing a record of custody in the event of an incident.
There are many challenges when tracking gas cylinders, including signal interference, battery life constraints, durability, mounting difficulties and more. On the other side of these challenges are the huge benefits of gas cylinder tracking, including real time visibility, regulatory compliance and optimized operations.
The solution is working with Digital Matter on a custom device, tailored to your specific needs. Contact us now and take the first step towards a reliable, fit for purpose tracking solution that delivers results.