Method for treating laundry items
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current laundry treatment methods require significant equipment and personnel, with manual sorting being error-prone and inefficient, leading to potential damage to items and high operational costs.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method where laundry items are treated unsorted until the final stages, using non-contact identification and imaging technologies to determine type, size, and treatment criteria, allowing for automated sorting and folding, reducing the need for pre-sorting and minimizing personnel effort.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If manual sorting is performed before treatment, then laundry items can be categorized by type and size, but personnel effort and time consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Data carriers are attached to laundry items in advance, storing information about type, size, color, and treatment requirements. This preliminary action enables automatic identification and sorting during subsequent processing stages without requiring manual inspection, thereby reducing both personnel effort and time consumption while maintaining accurate categorization.
2Productivity
If extensive pre-sorting is performed, then treatment can be optimized for each item type, but equipment complexity and space requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex mechanical sorting systems with an information-based system using data carriers and automatic recognition technologies. Instead of requiring multiple physical sorting stations and manual operations, the system uses stored information on data carriers to guide treatment processes, thereby maintaining high treatment efficiency while significantly reducing equipment complexity and space requirements.
3Reliability
If manual sorting is performed, then laundry items can be separated by type, but sorting accuracy decreases due to human error
Solution Approach 1:
Laundry items carry their own identification information on data carriers, enabling them to be automatically recognized and sorted without human intervention. The system reads the information stored on each item's data carrier and automatically routes it to the appropriate treatment process, ensuring high sorting accuracy while simplifying operations. This self-identifying mechanism eliminates human error entirely.
4Productivity
If laundry items are sorted before treatment, then processing can be optimized, but the overall process duration increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables continuous processing by attaching data carriers to laundry items before they enter the treatment line. As items move through washing, drying, and ironing processes, their information is automatically read and used to control treatment parameters without interrupting the flow. This continuous action maintains high throughput rates while reducing total processing time compared to batch sorting methods.
Data Source
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AI summary
Used laundry items (10) are delivered to laundries unsorted. It is currently common practice to sort the laundry items (10) upon delivery and then process the sorted items (10), at least by washing, drying, mangling, and folding. This prior sorting is labor-intensive and time-consuming. The invention provides for processing at least those laundry items (10) that require mangling unsorted. Only before folding are the unsorted laundry items (10) identified and folded accordingly. After folding, the identified laundry items (10) are sorted according to their identified criteria by stacking folded laundry items with the same criteria onto separate piles of identically processed and folded laundry items (10). This reduces the sorting effort required for the laundry items (10).