A major industrial laundry in Bourg-en-Bresse recently tested and installed a new solution for reading barcodes on hangers and garments. Using a Cognex DataMan 300 reader, the company now achieves a read rate of 99.99 %, with a direct impact on productivity: reduced costs and increased throughput.
Code reading: a must for smooth laundry operations
The Bourg-en-Bresse industrial laundry processes 40 tons of linen a day, including 18,000 items of clothing. In this laundry, each garment and each hanger is identified by a name label and a unique barcode, guaranteeing permanent traceability. Code reading is therefore essential to the operation of the laundry.
The codes are read in two specific areas: sorting and visiting. After washing, garments are placed on hangers and transported to a sorting area, where they are processed at a rate of one hanger code every 12 cm. 120 garments are processed per minute. By reading the barcode on the hanger, the garments are directed to the storage area allocated to their owner, prior to shipment. In the visitage area, an operator inspects each garment for holes, stains or other defects requiring further treatment (repair or re-cleaning). In this area, codes are located both on the garment and on the hanger. They can be read to locate the garment.
" Until now, explains Jean-François Guillemin, As the laundry's maintenance manager, we used to use laser scanners for these readings, and struggled to achieve a reading rate of 97 % in the best of cases. This meant, on average, 500 unread hangers and as many unallocated garments that had to be manually re-sorted. The result was a waste of time and money. ".
DataMan 300 : uperfectly matched reader at laundrys industrials
The Bourg-en-Bresse laundry was therefore looking to improve this on-hanger reading. A Cognex DataMan 300 1D and 2D code reader-imager was installed and tested... The results were immediately convincing, and the laundry equipped its sorting and visiting areas with these readers. In these two areas, the use of an imager instead of a laser scanner resulted in more robust decoding.
Thanks to its patented technologies, the DataMan 300 is perfectly adapted to the needs of industrial laundries: IP65 waterproof, it can process a large number of barcodes, in good condition or not, with read rates of almost 100 %, easy deployment and long system life.
" The barcodes printed on garments and hangers are permanent and are put to the test, between repetitive washing, shocks and multiple handling. Tarnished, scratched, worn codes... it doesn't matter. The DataMan 300, equipped with 1DMax+ software, is capable of reading all codes, even the most degraded, whatever their position and orientation. "emphasizes Jean-François Guillemin. An appreciable advantage, especially in the visiting area, where the hangers swing strongly in front of the reader, making reading more difficult.
Easy deployment and reduced investment
The DataMan 300 offers further economic advantages: commissioning in the laundry has been simplified thanks to its autofocus and integrated LED lighting. The reader itself adjusts the lighting required to ensure correct reading, without human intervention. What's more, only one device is needed to read the two sizes of codes corresponding to the two types of hangers, so two DataMan 300s were enough to replace the three laser scanners installed at the Visitage workstation. Another benefit: the ability to view and transfer scanner images enables the reason for any unread codes to be analyzed.
A read rate of over 99.99 % ... or 90 % less waste
Since installing DataMan 300 readers in its sorting and inspection zones, the Bourg-en-Bresse laundry has recorded impressive results: the rate of successful code reading has risen from 97% to over 99.9%. And the number of unassigned garments has fallen to less than 50. Now that reading is more reliable, sorting errors have disappeared and delivery of the right garment to the customer is now guaranteed, every time. "concludes Jean-François Guillemin.
Learn more: www.cognex.com