ITTV20090220A1 - SEMIAUTOMATIC FILLER FOR INDUSTRIAL LAUNDRIES - Google Patents

Description

DESCRIPTION

SEMI-AUTOMATIC UNSCRAMBLER FOR INDUSTRIAL LAUNDRY

The present invention relates to a device for semiautomatically managing the sorting and bagging phases of the garments processed by an industrial laundry on behalf of a customer that has a multi-level structure of the type: customer / user group / user ( for example a social and health unit structured in departments and each department is associated with several guests). This means will be identified below with the term: unscrambler.

There are many types of industrial laundries on the market. These laundries differ considerably according to the products they handle and the customers to whom they offer their services. The device proposed here, called unscrambler, concerns industrial laundries that operate with a multiplicity of customers, each of which is structured in several levels.

By way of example, but not exclusively, the following is a case of a customer such as an industrial laundry, or a socio-sanitary unit: This socio-sanitary unit is structured in different departments. Each department hosts several people. Each person has the need to wash a variety of items of clothing.

Hereafter the person will be called user, the department will be called group of users, the social health unit will be called customer.

The problem that very often arises is constituted by the fact that frequently the garments sent for washing are not returned and it is extremely difficult to find them as there is a lack of traceability systems. In practice they are considered lost.

In addition to this problem, it should be noted that the sorting and bagging phases represent very important items in the overall cost of the service and therefore their reduction is essential for a greater competitive capacity of the industrial laundry.

The proposed device, called unscrambler, serves precisely to avoid such disservices / losses as well as to improve the efficiency of industrial laundries and in conclusion to lower the costs of the service.

We describe below how the production cycle of an industrial laundry operating with customers structured at multiple levels currently works.

This industrial washing machine receives a large quantity of garments from various customers on a daily basis, which differ considerably from:

To the type of garment (underwear, skirts, trousers, shirts, etc.),

To the type of fabric (wool, linen, synthetic fabric, etc.),

To the color (white, red, black, etc.),

To the bulkiness,

etc.

All these garments, coming from different customers, are treated by large industrial washing machines. In recent times, industrial washing machines have appeared on the market with an ever-increasing load capacity, dictated by the objective of cutting down industrial unit washing costs,

The increase in the quantities handled by industrial washing machines makes all the processing phases that follow the washing much more complex, namely: ironing, sorting, bagging and redelivery.

To solve the problems linked to this ever increasing complexity it is necessary that, before starting the process of accepting the garments for washing, ironing, bagging and delivery, each garment is made identifiable. Only in this way will it be possible to correctly return the garments to customers, user groups, users. The identification criteria of a garment, which must be subjected to the treatment of an industrial laundry, can be very varied and largely depend on the recognition device. These devices are the most varied, however it should be noted that the most commonly used recognition device consists of a label with the barcode and name of the user (or simply the name of the user) printed, but they can be used also other devices, for example RFID TAGs. Regardless of the recognition device used, it will be necessary for the industrial laundry to have a video terminal to collect information relating to:

To the type of garment,

User name,

Membership of the user in a user group

Name of the customer.

The video terminal will be connected to an information processing unit and will use a memory to store this information.

Once in the industrial laundry, the garment will be sorted by color, type of fabric, type of washing recommended, etc., all this in order to better treat the garments and at the same time saturate the available machinery as much as possible.

At the end of the washing and drying treatment, the garments will be ironed and then placed on a conveyor belt that will convey them to the sorting and bagging area.

The operators of the sorting area who receive the garments through the conveyor belt will proceed to identify the garment. Reading the recognition device (Bar Code, RFID TAG, name in letters, etc.) will allow you to consult the memory in which all the information relating to the garment is stored and consequently to start the sorting phase.

To sort the garments, the state of the art presents some very different solutions, a The first solution does not involve the use of any means that presents some degree of automation.

Therefore, tables offering large surfaces or alternatively large shelves or, finally, mobile containers will be used.

The operating procedures will in fact refer to the experience of the sorting operator.

These:

<â–> he will often proceed to create small piles of garments by placing them on large tables,

<â–> at other times, instead of tables, he will use large shelves.

<â–> still others of the mobile trolleys.

As you can guess, such a way of operating has great limitations. It is very easy to make mistakes and consequently the operator will have to pick up part of the garments to identify them again. Eventually the errors will be completely ignored and the disservices will become the norm.

In the best of cases, to reduce these disruptions, the operator will have sorting and shipping lists, but even these lists will offer very little help to the operator. He will continue to tick the lists until the objective is reached, reducing the inefficiencies, but this way of proceeding made of checks and rechecks will determine the widest variability of times and labor costs connected to the sorting phase.

b) The second solution uses automatic vertical warehouses with mobile cells.

If the operator uses a vertical warehouse with mobile cells, he will never move from his position, but will operate in the following way: after reading the recognition device and then sending the information to the processing unit of the automatic warehouse with mobile cells, the latter will present to the operator the compartment, available in the shelving, best suited to accommodate the garment. To do this, the device will rotate until it intercepts this compartment.

In the early stages of sorting the rotation movements to present the free compartment will be reduced as all the compartments will be empty at the start and therefore the operations will be fast, while, when the sorting phase will be towards the end, the rotation movements will be decidedly more long and therefore the operator will end up being inactive for some time with the consequence that management costs will become unrealistic.

So if you have an automatic vertical warehouse, sorting times are very high and the vehicle is inefficient as it creates a bottleneck. If then, to remedy these inefficiencies, new automatic vertical warehouses are acquired accompanied by the staff who controls them, the solution is decidedly very expensive.

c Another solution is represented by patent DE - A1 - 102005036575 claiming a classification and sorting procedure, partly manual, for the classification and sorting of laundry items in a shelving. In this process, the item to be classified is placed according to a certain order in the prepared shelving, after reading the identification bar code. All this happens because there is a relationship between the identification code and the classification code, therefore the invention in question concerns a system for carrying out a procedure relating to the invention itself.

However, this solution does not allow a strict control of the items of clothing inserted or removed from the shelf because said shelf is devoid of control systems for verifying the correct attribution of the garment to that position.

Furthermore, the solution described by patent DE102005036575 provides for the use of fixed shelving which is not very versatile in industrial working conditions. Furthermore, the same patent does not provide for the use of multicolored luminous signals that allow the simultaneous activity of several operators in the sorting phase, each of which is assigned a color, increasing productivity especially in moments of peak work. In fact, the sorting phase is the classic bottleneck phase and must therefore be solved by strengthening the simultaneous activity of several operators.

d The other automatic solutions for laundry, which use hanging garments and â € œintelligentâ € hangers are not suitable for the massive service that must be carried out by industrial laundries that work with customers structured at multiple levels, so they are not commented on below.

The unscrambler object of the present patent application is represented in the attached figures.

Figure 1: Shelving consisting of a set of wired cells (position 1), each of which is equipped with a photocell (position 2) and light signaling that is off at the start (position 3). The shelving is equipped with an alarm consisting of a luminous and acoustic signal (position 17). Figure 2: Wired shelving that has a light signal on (position 4) relating to the celta in which the garment must be deposited by the operator.

Figure 3 Switching off of the light signal (position 5) at the correct conclusion of the clothing storage cycle (position 6).

Figure 4 Example layout of the positioning of the Mobile wired shelving (position 11) in the Sorting (position 9) and Bagging (position 10) departments. The racks can move, for example, by rotating around a pin (position 8) or moving linearly on rails (position 7).

Figure 5 Lighting of the luminous signals relating to a customer (position 12) Figure 6 The lighting of the luminous signals relating to the user's clothing occurs sequentially, for example first position 13, then position 14, finally position 15 This determines the order of unloading / emptying. When all the garments of a user have been unloaded / emptied the wired shelving will show all the lights off (position 16)

Figure 7 Mobile shelving (position 19) arranged in an H.

Figure 8 Mobile shelving (position 19) arranged in a T shape

Figure 9 Fixed shelving (position 18) arranged in an L-shape

Figure 10 Fixed shelving (position 18) arranged in a U shape

Description of the innovative solution

The technical task of the present invention is to propose an unscrambler consisting of a series of mobile or fixed shelving, wired and equipped with an indefinite number of numbered cells. A multicolored light signaling device is installed in each of these cells.

The unscrambler is able to guide all the sorting activities of the garments of an industrial laundry that works with customers structured on several levels and then the bagging and shipping activities.

The luminous signaling of each cell can take on different colors. An operator is associated with each color. Therefore they will be able (not necessarily) to work simultaneously several operators at the same time. This will make the unscrambler a very flexible means of dealing with the work peaks that can sometimes arise.

The choice of the appropriate type of lamps, for example LED, and the related color control systems will allow to increase or decrease the number of operators who will sort the items.

The operation of the! unscrambler will be explained below:

1. At the start, all the cells of the wired shelving will show an off light signal, as can be seen in Figure 1.

2. The ironed garments, placed on a conveyor belt, will reach an identification point. This point will be equipped with a video terminal and a means of reading the identification devices (labels with barcode, with RFID TAG, etc.). In practice, the identification points can be even more than one. For example, each operator could use his own identification point and each operator, as has been said, is hooked to a light signaling the color associated with the operator.

3 Once the garment has been identified, the unscrambler will retrieve the information from the memory through the processing unit that will be used to indicate in which cell the garment must be deposited by the operator. The signal will consist in the switching on of the light signal of the color associated with the operator, as shown in Figure 2.

In any case, the coordinates of the cell where the garment is to be deposited will be displayed on the operator's service monitor. This is to compensate for any faults in the electrical part of the light signal.

The operator will deposit the garment in the cell that has the light signal (with its associated color) on and in doing so it will pass through a field controlled by a photocell.

The correct storage of the garment in the cell will determine the conclusion of the storage cycle and therefore the switching off of the light signal, as shown in Figure 3.

If the operator places the garment in an incorrect cell, for example in a cell that does not have any light signals, the unscrambler activates an alarm which consists in switching on an intermittent light and activating of a siren (see Figure 1, position 17). At this point all the deposits will be blocked and an error message will also be recorded in a special file. The release can take place by repositioning the garment in the correct cell.

The unscrambler requires each cell to be calibrated to contain a maximum number of items of clothing. Once the maximum number of items has been reached, the cell itself will no longer be used. However, a cell could be filled with fewer items if they are particularly bulky (for example coats). In this case, the operator being unable to place the garment in the indicated cell, will ask the unscrambler to indicate another cell in which to place the garment.

Since the operators work at the same time, it could happen that the unscrambler instructs more than one operator to deposit the garment in the same cell. These competitions will be managed by the unscrambler by placing the operator who last identified the garment on hold and signaling it on the service monitor.

The sorting phase is strictly interconnected with the bagging and shipping phase, as the wired shelving equipped with light cells can have the characteristic of being mobile and therefore can be automatically repositioned in the bagging and shipping department.

By way of example, but not exclusively, the movements can consist in a rectilinear movement on rails, or in a rotation around a central pivot, as shown in Figure 4.

The operator or operators of the bagging department will be able to choose the method in which they will have to prepare the packages for shipment. In fact, they can indifferently select everything that concerns a customer, as shown in Figure 5, or a group of users or a single user.

If the operator selects everything concerning a customer, all the luminous signals relating to the clothing of that customer will come on. Therefore, in the envelope phase, the luminous signals will no longer be linked to the operators, but will be associated with the customers (or as we will see later, with groups of users or with the single user).

As if the operator selects, for example, a user, the unscrambler will sequentially turn on all the luminous signals relating to the cells involved in the discharges / emptying of that user, thus also ending the picking order. As shown in figure 6.

The operator will take the garments from the cell which has a luminous signal of the color associated with the customer, or user group, or user. In doing this, the garment passes through a field controlled by a photocell and the light signal immediately goes out, thus considering the removal completed correctly. At the end all the cells relating to a customer will show the light signal off. As shown in Figure 6, position 16.

15. In the event of incorrect picking from a cell that has a light signal off, the unscrambler activates an alarm which consists in switching on an intermittent light and activating a siren (see Figure 1, position 17) . In this case the unscrambler will block the drains.

16. The unscrambler himself will be able to produce all the labeling and packing list documentation that is necessary for the management of the service, also in relation to the specific needs of the customer, for example:

<â–> the list of errors

<â–> the history of garment washing treatments

<â–> the change of status of the garment (for example the change to a damaged garment)

<â–> Web display of washing data.

Claims (17)

CLAIMS 1. Semi-automatic unscrambler for industrial laundries consisting of one or more video terminals connected to an information processing unit and a memory to store information relating to clothing, each video terminal being equipped with an apparatus for reading identification devices (labels with barcode, with RFID TAG, etc.), of shelving equipped with light signaling, characterized by the fact that it consists of one or more mobile shelving, each of which is equipped with an indefinite number of cells connected to information processing units and an alarm consisting, for example, of a flashing light and a siren. Each cell connected to the information processing unit will be equipped with a photocell capable of detecting the passage of clothing items from or to the cell itself. 2. Unscrambler according to the preceding claims characterized in that said mobile shelves can be arranged in an H shape, so that four shelves provided with tracks on which to slide alternate two by two, while the central shelf rotates around a pin 3. Unscrambler according to the preceding claims, characterized in that the racks can be arranged in a T shape, so that two racks provided with rails on which to slide alternate, while the central shelving rotates around a pivot. 4. Unscrambler according to claim 1, characterized in that the shelves can be fixed and L-shaped. 5. Unscrambler according to claim 1, characterized in that the shelves are fixed and U-shaped. 6. Unscrambler according to the preceding claims characterized by the fact that it provides for a sequential switching on of the luminous signals of the cells connected to the information processing unit in order to indicate to the operator, assigned to the sorting phase, the correct sequence for depositing the garments of users' clothing in the cells themselves 7. Unscrambler according to the preceding claims characterized by the fact of providing for the sequential lighting of the luminous signals of the cells connected to the information processing unit in order to indicate to the operator, assigned to the bagging phase, the correct sequence of removal of users' clothing from the cells themselves. 8. Unscrambler according to the preceding claims, characterized in that it provides for the activation of a visual and audible alarm 9. Unscrambler according to claim 9 characterized by the fact that the alarm can consist of an intermittent light and a siren, and activated in relation to the operator's failure to comply with the sequence for depositing the items in the cells with consequent blocking of any other light signaling of the cells connected to the information processing unit. 10. Unscrambler according to the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that it provides for the activation of a visual alarm in relation to the operator's failure to comply with the sequence for picking up the items from the cells with consequent blocking of any other light signaling of the cells connected to the information processing unit. 11. Unscrambler according to the preceding claims, characterized in that the alarm can be made by making the luminous signaling of the single cell connected to the information processing unit intermittent. 12. Unscrambler according to the preceding claims characterized by the fact that in the sorting phase it is possible to insert information in the memory connected to the processing unit indicating the change in the state of usability of the garment (for example the passage to `` garment deterioratedâ €) 13. Unscrambler according to the preceding claims, characterized in that in the sorting step, each light signal relating to each cell connected to the information processing unit can assume a different color. Each color is associated with an operator assigned to sorting the garments. 14. Unscrambler according to the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that in the envelope phase a user is associated with each light signal relating to each cell connected to the information processing unit, belonging to a group of users, in turn belonging to a customer. 15. Unscrambler according to the preceding claims characterized by the fact that in the bagging phase all the luminous signals of a given color, relating to cells connected to the information processing unit, can be switched on simultaneously to indicate the cells in which they have been deposited the clothing items of a particular customer. 16. Unscrambler according to the preceding claims, characterized by the fact of providing a system for managing information relating to: a) the list of errors b) the history of the washing treatments of the garment 17. Unscrambler according to the claims, characterized by the fact that it allows an exact relationship between the information on the garments of a user contained in the memory connected to the processing unit and the content of each cell connected to the information processing unit , consisting of clothing.