SWITZERLAND
Datamars, the global supplier of high performance laundry identification solutions, has released two ‘In Motion’ UHF RFID reading systems for large-scale laundry businesses. The new Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Open Tunnel is a plug and play system compatible with virtually any conveyor belt, while the UHF Portal Plus is said to combine the reading performances of a cabin with the ease of operation of a portal.
Datamars said that the UHF Open Tunnel has been designed to work on virtually any laundry conveyor belt. It’s the perfect reading system to read clean packs of laundry.
As the tunnel is completely open it doesn’t interfere with the flow of linen and its operation is transparent to the laundry process. Stray reads are filtered out by software algorithms. The tunnel also automatically adapts to different conveyor speeds. Built from lightweight aluminium and stainless steel, it resists the harshest laundry environments.
Thanks to its capability to filter stray reads, Datamars UHF Portal Plus can be used to read carts packed with clean stacks of laundry and is capable of reading up to 500 pieces at regular walking speed. It is the perfect solution to read a large number of clean laundry but can also be used in any area were bulk reading is needed without slowing down the flow.
Julien Buros, product and services director at Datamars Textile ID said: “We know laundries work on a very tight schedule where every second counts. A few months ago, we announced the fastest UHF cabin which can read up to 1,000 tags in just 3.5 seconds. We are now going one step further with the release of the “In Motion” reading systems that are able to accurately scan moving trolleys or stack of laundry.”
While UHF technology reads hundreds of tags per second and can deal with reading distances up to 8m, the technology is subject to signal reflection. Signal reflection can lead to stray tag readings, which can result to incorrect billing, inventory or delivery. Usually the solution to the stray read problem is to use metal-shielding in order to confine the UHF field inside the reading system, like a UHF cabin or UHF closed tunnel. These systems are highly accurate but tend to slow down the laundry flow as they are adding an extra step to the process.
The two new In Motion UHF systems overcome this weakness by allowing the tunnel and portal to read tags while the trolley or the stack of laundry are moving, with no compromise to stray reads.
Datamars also drastically improved its UHF Cabinets reading speed, halving the time required by previous generation Datamars UHF systems. Now Datamars UHF cabinets take just 3.5 seconds on average to read a trolley containing 1,000 items, so a laundry using the UHF cabinets at full capacity, will gain almost 1 hour per shift making it more efficient.
The Datamars reading systems portfolio now encompasses different product categories to meet any customer need: portals, cabinets, tunnels, conveyor systems, table tops and combo systems UHF-HF-LF to support customers transitioning to newer technologies.
