Sorting Garments  
 – Flat Garment & Hanging Garment Sample Installations

Hanging Garment Sorter Video    Click on above image

Flat Garment Cross-Belt Sorter Video Click on above image

Flat Garment Tilt Tray Oval Sorter Video Click on above image

Hanging Garment Sorting System

Here we present a GBI Hanging Garment on Hanger Sortation System specially designed for an Industrial Laundry application.

Like all of GBI's systems this one is also designed to be configured to match the requirements of each application. This description is of a GBI Garment on Hanger Sortation System, used in the Uniform Rental Industry.

Features of GOH Sorting System  High Accuracy Rates Fast Sort rates (7,000 per hour) Modular design & Construction Low Maintenance Long Life & Reliable Operation Pneumatic Diverts State of the Art C++ Software Generous use of sensors & controls Benefits of GOH Sorting System  Simple Operation Windows graphical user interface Seamless integration with existing Warehouse Management Systems Full tracking capability within the plant to locate and expedite order deficiencies Detail reporting by garment Equipment Monitoring

click on image for enlarged view

Description of Operation

This is a description of a typical application for GBI's Garment on Hanger Sorter (GOH). The operation is a Uniform Rental Company and the application of the sorter is to sort out the clothing according to the day it ships out, the route it ships on, and the locker (representing the individual) it belongs to.

Clothing is brought into the laundry on a continuous basis, grouped by the shipping day and separated by type for cleaning. All articles that can be washed together are put together for cleaning efficiency. The clothing is then cleaned, pressed, hung on hangers and placed onto an overhead conveyor. The conveyor used is generally GBI's drag link style since it allows the clothes to compress together for higher conveying capacity.

The clothing is then moved to the first operator station on the primary sorter. The operator chooses the day and route to be sorted at the computer console and begins inducting the clothes. Clothing is first inducted into the primary sorter and separated by ship day and route. If the current sort is for a Monday then all Monday clothes will be allowed to pass to a buffer rail. Anything other than the current sort will be diverted to a "day" buffer representing the day it will be grouped with until that day is run. Clothing from other routes are sent to a special drop.

The clothing comes into the first sort and is separated into individual garments by the sorter's singulator mechanism. After separation, each garment is transferred onto an inverted pin conveyor designed to transport one hanger per carrier for individual sort.

Singulator Mechanism click on image for enlarged view

Identification click on image for enlarged view

Immediately following the singulator and after the hanger has been transferred to the inverted pin conveyor the carrier is run through a crossed hanger detect sensor array to check that there are no crossed hangers and that there is only one hanger per carrier (inverted pin segment). Should the crossed hanger detect sensor array pick up a crossed hanger it is immediately diverted off the sorter for correction.

After passing the cross hanger detect the clothing is run past a scanner, series of scanners or other sensing device to identify the item and is then routed to its destination. Unreadable barcodes are assigned a temporary tag and number at a marry tag station so it can be automatically sorted. The clothing is first routed past the day buffers to remove the clothing that do not belong with that day's sort.

After passing the day buffers the clothing is conveyed to the day-route buffer area where the clothing is separated by day, route and type. The type represents whether they are pants, shirts or other type clothing. This will later allow the day route to be sorted in a particular sequence in the secondary sort according to the specifications so that all the shirts are together with shirts, pants with pants and arranged so that one type is in front of the other for appearance.

The day-route buffers are drag link conveyors that allow the clothes to accumulate in a compressed fashion as described earlier. Sensors and controls monitor the belt movement and accumulation to turn motors off when they are no longer needed. The clothing is stored in the day-route buffers until it is ready to ship.

Once it becomes necessary to ship a given day and route, an operator would initiate the release of the day route at the second sort station. Day Routes occupying multiple buffers are release automatically in a organized fashion keeping the clothing in type order according to the system setup, which can be changed from time to time.

The second sort is used to separate the cloths within a day-route, by type and finally locker. This is essentially the final sort in the process. The garments are released from the buffers onto a drag link conveyor. Garment position and movement are monitored for stragglers or hang-ups. Subsequent buffers rails are released once the system has detected that the last garment has cleared the line blocking the next buffer to be released.

The garments are then transported to the second sort induction area where the same process of singulation and transfer takes place (as in the primary sort) to separate the clothing onto individual carriers to be individually sorted. As in the primary sort station, this station also has the crossed hanger detect and correcting divert, scanners and no-read divert.

Garments may arrive from a mixed buffer where the route was not large enough to dedicate a buffer rail to specific garment types. In this case a series of "type" buffers are utilized to temporarily buffer the other garment types while the first type is sorted to the locker (individual user customer). For example, if the first garment type to be sorted is pants, the other garment types are separated by type to individual buffers (e.g. shirts with shirts on its own buffer rail and others with others on its own buffer rail). After the first garment type has been sorted, the operator would release the subsequent garments types from each buffer to complete the locker, or end sort. The second sort can perform up to three locker separations for each divert. If the amount of lockers exceed the physical divert points, multiple passes are utilized to perform the entire sort.

Locker Diverts click on the image for enlarged view

For example, if there are 300 lockers to be sorted in a specific order and there are only 100 locker diverts, the lockers satisfying the first 100 lockers will be sorted directly to the first locker stop and the remaining 200 lockers will go to the type buffer. Using the earlier illustration, pants was the first article sorted. In this case, the first 100 pants will be routed to the locker divert followed by the first 100 shirts and 100 other type clothing.

Once the first 100 lockers are sorted, a "stop" will rise on each locker divert collection rail to separate the first 100 lockers from the second. The second sort begins by the operator releasing the type buffers, and those clothes begin to accumulate by locker order directly behind the first 100 locker sort.

Drag-Link Accumulation Conveyor click on the image for enlarged view

Once the second locker sort has begun, the operator may release the first locker sort for transport to the trolleys for truck loading. The locker take-away is a drag link conveyor.

The locker sort assignment order is controlled by the sorter to permit an efficient take-away sequence. The second 100 lockers are set up so that it could follow immediately behind the first released lockers without having to wait for the take-away conveyor to entirely clear. The first garment of the second sort immediately follows the last garment of the first sort when the second locker sort is released immediately after the first one was.

Numerous software and electronic controls are in place to monitor the sort. Crossed hangers are automatically detected and removed for correction, unread bar coded garments are also separated and garments are verified against the correct routing for removal otherwise. Other controls include position sensors to monitor that garments have been transferred and devices strategically placed to ensure that triggering mechanisms are functioning properly.

Some of the additional options used to enhance the sort or add more functionality to the sorter used for this application are:

1. Operator productivity
2. Customer data collection
3. Full tracking capability
4. Integration with Warehouse Management System or host system
   - both with data transfer and controls
5. Inventory Tracking

We encourage you to contact GBI - to discuss your specific requirements:

Because of the wide variety of applications and the flexibility of this sorter, we invite you to call us to discuss your specific requirements. GBI will be happy to assemble a quotation according to your specific needs.

See Sorter Types for a complete description of GBI's Hanging Garment Sorter.

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GBI Data & Sorting Systems • 1143 West Newport Center Drive • Deerfield Beach, FL 33442 USA
954-596-5000 Ext. 231 • Fax 954-596-5015 • E-mail contact: info@gbisorters.com