Compact wireless terminal for intralogistics and production

30th March 2017

steute

Anna Flockett

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Procedures which are familiar to staff working at assembly, dispatch and picking points, may include; requisitioning replenishment parts, warehousing, triggering order processes and requesting consignments or shipping orders. The wireless terminal being presented at the LogiMAT by steute business unit ‘Wireless’ for the first time enables these tasks to be performed more easily, more comfortably and more flexibly. At the same time, they are simple to integrate in a company's IT infrastructure.

Users receive information via a two-line display and, vice versa, can also send information to superordinate control systems (WMS, ERP, PDA) via three freely configurable buttons. Flexibility is guaranteed, for example by the fact that signals are passed on within the wireless network sWave.NET. This occurs via access points, which work similarly to a router and send the wireless signals directly to an IP address, where they are then processed by the company's IT system.

New terminals can be integrated in this network in just a few steps. This also makes for simple retrofitting, for example, to FIFO shelves, E-Kanban shelves, picking points or other workstations. At the same time, transparency is increased, both at the individual workstation and throughout the company, because a constant, bidirectional flow of information is generated – for example from the picking belt to logistics management or from the Kanban shelf to materials handling. In each case, additional wireless switching devices and command systems can be integrated in the sWave.NET wireless network at any time.

steute believes that ‘wireless Kanban’ shelves, Andon systems for displaying malfunctions and irregularities in production, as well as mobile workstations in consignment zones could all be examples of typical applications for its new wireless terminal. This wireless technology includes features such as minimal installation costs, high overall transmission times and maintenance-free operation for many years.

Since the sWave.NET wireless network is more or less self-configuring, very little effort is required to set it up. For optimised energy efficiency with short activity cycles, transmitter and receiver processes must be coordinated. When a user sends information via a wireless terminal, the transmitter addresses several different access points in the vicinity, tests the transmission signal strength of each response and then sends the signal to the access point with the highest signal strength. The transmission path is prioritised regularly. In this way, short latency periods and high transmission reliability are guaranteed.