Case history - Intermec
Case history - Intermec Case history - Intermec
Case history The fully automated stacked shelf warehouse with 3.5 million containers. Prior to the entry into service of the equipment, the refilling of already available substances and the attachment of barcode labels were outsourced to an external company, with the labelling contractor only scanning the first and last barcode of a batch for readability. Intermec’s 1800 SR standard scanner is used for in-company quality control. Dr. Wolfgang Röben: “Problems increased suddenly with the entry into service of our plant equipment. Although extremely expensive laser scanners made by a competitor were installed on our robots, relatively high ‘No Read’ rates occurred. We were faced with a puzzle, particularly as no errors could be detected and the barcodes were perfectly identifiable with a normal Intermec standard scanner. Nor could we define the exact number of incorrect readings, as sometimes this involved individual items, complete series or entire loads. Manual refilling into a container with a demonstrably correct label was not possible for time, staff and cost reasons. When examining our barcodes with a magnifying glass we noticed that parts of particular bars were missing, including within the bar width. Due to these dot losses a broad bar divided into two narrow ones – which led to a clear reading error for every other CCD or laser scanner. The problem therefore lay with our barcodes – so our compliments go to the ScanPlus 1800 Vista-Engine’s error correction algorithm and our decision to choose Intermec. Many laser scanners made by competitors were tested in advance – there was simply no product which could pick up from the reading quality achieved by this hand scanner! We also see as optimum its capacity to bridge a reading distance of over 10 cm from the rotating gripping arm to the scanner without difficulty.”
Case history Dr. Wolfgang Röben, Scientific Computation and Substance Logistics Department at Bayer: performance and reliability are guaranteed in this extremely sensitive area through use of the Intermec scanner! BAYER NEEDED A SHORT-TERM SOLUTION TO OPERATE THE ENTIRE PLANT WITH 11 ROBOTS WITHOUT DISRUPTION. The next step involved making this scanner with all its advantages “suitable for robots and SPScontrollable” as robots cannot operate a trigger “by hand”. The robot is capable of switching on the scanner using its retrofitted trigger circuit; the scanner reads exactly as long as the plant equipment demands over a freely-configurable reading duration of 4 seconds. A specially made casing holds the ScanPlus 1800 Vista’s scan engine and has been integrated into the robots. Dr. Wolfgang Röben: “Thought was also naturally given to the advantageous error-correction algorithm. When a scanner can read this defective barcode so well, there is a danger that an incorrect value can be transmitted as correct. The situation would not however have been understood immediately in the system, as the barcode would change fundamentally and fall completely outside the predefined set of numbers“. AS A RESULT WE CARRIED OUT A VERY SIMPLE TEST “A vessel with a very worn barcode was placed in continuous rotation on the robot and the scanner placed in permanent reading mode. The scanner reported a number after each scan which was written to a database. Several thousand numbers were available after a given period. The database could be queried to establish whether all the numbers read were identical. We did not find any incorrect reading during the many test scans. This made us certain that we were not creating a new problem by solving one”. With this very special, inexpensive and most-of-all secure solution the entire robot system at Bayer Crop Science in Monheim operates at maximum performance without barcode reading problems.
<strong>Case</strong><br />
<strong>history</strong><br />
The fully automated<br />
stacked shelf<br />
warehouse with<br />
3.5 million containers.<br />
Prior to the entry into service<br />
of the equipment, the refilling of<br />
already available substances and the<br />
attachment of barcode labels were<br />
outsourced to an external company,<br />
with the labelling contractor only<br />
scanning the first and last barcode<br />
of a batch for readability. <strong>Intermec</strong>’s<br />
1800 SR standard scanner is used<br />
for in-company quality control.<br />
Dr. Wolfgang Röben: “Problems<br />
increased suddenly with the entry<br />
into service of our plant equipment.<br />
Although extremely expensive laser<br />
scanners made by a competitor were<br />
installed on our robots, relatively high<br />
‘No Read’ rates occurred. We were faced<br />
with a puzzle, particularly as no errors<br />
could be detected and the barcodes<br />
were perfectly identifiable with a<br />
normal <strong>Intermec</strong> standard scanner.<br />
Nor could we define the exact number<br />
of incorrect readings, as sometimes this<br />
involved individual items, complete<br />
series or entire loads. Manual refilling<br />
into a container with a demonstrably<br />
correct label was not possible for time,<br />
staff and cost reasons.<br />
When examining our barcodes with<br />
a magnifying glass we noticed that<br />
parts of particular bars were missing,<br />
including within the bar width.<br />
Due to these dot losses a broad bar<br />
divided into two narrow ones – which<br />
led to a clear reading error for every<br />
other CCD or laser scanner. The<br />
problem therefore lay with our<br />
barcodes – so our compliments<br />
go to the ScanPlus 1800 Vista-Engine’s<br />
error correction algorithm and our<br />
decision to choose <strong>Intermec</strong>. Many<br />
laser scanners made by competitors<br />
were tested in advance – there was<br />
simply no product which could pick<br />
up from the reading quality achieved<br />
by this hand scanner! We also see<br />
as optimum its capacity to bridge<br />
a reading distance of over 10 cm<br />
from the rotating gripping arm to<br />
the scanner without difficulty.”
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