Article Separation and Identification Flow for Unreadable Items
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems for separating and identifying articles face inefficiencies due to unidentifiable items causing endless loops and reduced throughput rates, as they occupy handling units and mix with identifiable products, leading to delayed order picking and batch number errors.
Innovation Solution
A system with a handling unit, sensor unit, and identification unit that moves articles to separate positions for identification, where unidentifiable items are isolated and retried, and identified items are processed quickly, using a position conveyor to manage unidentifiable items and prevent them from re-entering the main stream, allowing for faster processing and maintaining throughput.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If unidentifiable articles are repeatedly processed by the handling unit, then identification accuracy is improved, but throughput rate deteriorates due to endless loops
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts unidentifiable articles from the main processing stream by transferring them to a separate storage zone after a predetermined number of failed identification attempts. This prevents these articles from continuously occupying the handling unit and mixing with identifiable articles, thereby resolving the contradiction between maintaining identification accuracy and preserving throughput rate.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the article processing flow into two distinct paths: one for identifiable articles that continue through the handling unit, and another for unidentifiable articles that are moved to a storage zone. This segmentation allows the handling unit to focus on identifiable articles while unidentifiable ones are handled separately, maintaining both accuracy and throughput.
2Productivity
If unidentifiable articles are mixed with identifiable products, then handling unit utilization is improved, but product traceability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts unidentifiable articles from the main product stream and places them in a separate storage zone. This extraction prevents mixing between identifiable and unidentifiable articles, ensuring that product traceability is maintained for all identifiable items while the handling unit remains utilized for processing the majority of identifiable articles.
3Reliability
If articles are transported through storage zone, then identification accuracy is improved, but processing time deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by moving unidentifiable articles to the storage zone after a predetermined number of failed identification attempts, rather than continuing to cycle them indefinitely. This preliminary removal prevents excessive processing time while still allowing multiple identification attempts, thus balancing accuracy improvement with time loss prevention.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a system (1) for separating and identifying articles (2), comprising: a handling unit (5) for taking articles (2) from the source position in the direction of the leading-away conveying element (4), wherein the handling unit (5) is designed to pick up the articles from the source position according to the position and/or location detected by the sensor unit (6); and an identification unit (8), which is designed to identify the articles (2) taken by the handling unit (5) in the direction of the leading-away conveying element (4); wherein the leading-away conveying element (4) comprises a position conveyor (11), which is designed to convey the article (2) to a second position (P2) if the article was not able to be identified by the identification unit (8); wherein the second position (P2) is situated in a picking region of the handling unit (5).