Frame and optics
Welded ring or tunnel frame, bottom mirror bracket, head mounts with adjustment, cable management, guarding interface to your conveyor.
Three deployments. Three different failure modes.
A parcel hub, an in-plant assembly line and a reverse vending line all need a code. They fail for completely different reasons, and a station that works in one will disappoint in another.
01
Parcel and courier sortation
Six sides, line speeds from 1.5 to 3 m/s, labels printed on corrugate and often wrapped in stretch film. The failure mode is not decoding, it is motion smear and side angle.
What we size: number of faces actually needed, because a five sided station with a good top head often beats six sides at the same budget.
Acceptance test: 30 minutes of live traffic, read rate per face and per parcel, with the failed parcels photographed and classified by cause.
Typical failure: a 1.27 mm side floor met with 10 mil codes, which no multi-face geometry can rescue.
02
In-plant production and kitting
One face is usually enough. Codes are small, sometimes direct part marks on metal, and the line speed is lower than the decoder can handle.
What we size: resolution per module and illumination. A 0.38 mm code at 500 mm needs roughly four times the pixels of a 1.27 mm code at the same distance.
Acceptance test: read rate on the worst surface in the batch, not the best one. If the shop floor has three marking processes, we test all three.
Typical failure: low contrast dot peen on machined aluminium, quoted from a datasheet that assumed printed labels.
03
Reverse logistics and recycling
Containers arrive dented, wet and half crushed. Labels are torn, curved around a bottle, or printed under a reflection. Throughput matters more than elegance.
What we size: head count against the crush tolerance. Sometimes two heads on the same face at different angles beat one perfect head.
Acceptance test: a real bag of returns, not a sample of clean containers. We ask for the dirty bag on purpose.
Typical failure: a single rigid tunnel sized for a parcel hub, applied to objects that are not boxes.
We would rather lose the order in the geometry sheet than lose the line in week two.
How we quote
When we say no
Three situations get a written no instead of a quotation:
- The code is below the geometry floor. 10 mil side codes on a six sided station. We will quote top only and explain the limit.
- The speed is above the class ceiling. Beyond 3.5 m/s the physics of exposure, not the choice of vendor, becomes the constraint.
- The line cannot give a stable trigger. No encoder and no photo eye means no repeatable frame. Fix that first; the camera cannot compensate.
A no costs us one order and saves you a commissioning week. That is the trade we make.
Station scope, in one list
What a complete reading station from us contains, so you can compare it against a package quote line by line.
Cabinet and timing
IP54 cabinet, trigger box, encoder and photo eye kit, overdriven strobe supply, 24 V distribution, E stop interface.
Read and merge
Head configuration, parcel merge and de-duplication, JSON over TCP, diagnostic page with per head statistics. No licence key.
Commissioning
On site acceptance run against your traffic, read rate report, maintenance sheet, spare parts list, operator training.