Automation brochure
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Production Automation Experts
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Transcript of Automation brochure
ProductionAutomationExperts
www.hic.us -‐ 800-‐394-‐4426
When it comes to production automation for Apparel Decorating, no one has more experience than the partnership of Hirsch International and Pulse Microsystems. We have been pushing the envelope in automation processes for over 25 years and have helped companies of all sizes with their production automation, design rendering and design storage capabilities?
What makes us different? Its Simple…. We know apparel decorating and the intricacies involved in creating a smooth and customized workflow. We realize that no two companies operate with the same business model and rather than trying to force our customers to adapt to our standards, we customize to our customers workflow.
With a combined team of over 100 team members and knowledge of Embroidery, Direct to Garment, Engraving and Graphics automation, we are the clear leader and the right choice.
We integrate with most embroidery machine types and are proud to be the only authorized company to connect to a Tajima Embroidery Machine without voiding machine warranty.
Our Advantages include:
• Our own stitch, graphics and production engines to ensure top quality output. • Complex kerning overrides ensure that all letter combinations look great. • Extensive programming development and support with 24/7 support options available. • Collaborative programming between automation console and Tajima Embroidery
Machines. • Over 200 professionally digitized embroidery fonts designed for high output
production. • A variety of integration types allows for the perfect translation between order entry and
production. • Modular system which is easily expandable as business demands grow. • Use of customers business logic to ensure the right results time after time. • Works with browsers or desktop applications. • Multi-‐Location ready. • Compatible with most embroidery machine models. • Host Locally or In the Cloud. • Enterprise class production monitoring and reporting.
www.hic.us -‐ 800-‐394-‐4426
Mass Customization of Apparel Decorating has many advantages including:
• Producing customization automatically as orders are submitted. • Constant quality and adherence to customer established guidelines and rules. • Reduced cycle time and errors. • Reduced digitizing costs. • Automatic needle assignments which eliminates setup at the embroidery machine. • Enabling customer facing systems to show high-‐quality 3D simulations on garment
images.
Server Requirements
• Windows 2008 Server R2 (64 Bit) • Quad Core i7 CPU/ 4 GB RAM • MS-‐SQL (Standard Edition) or MY-‐SQL
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AUTOMATION: EMBROIDERY AND PRINT PERSONALIZATIONS
The following is a detailed description of the features and functionality of Automated Embroidery and Print Generation.
Representation of Automated Personalization Production
1. THE AUTOMATION SERVER
Central to Pulse’s Automation solution is the Automation Server. The Automation Server can use Microsoft SQL Server to house the various databases required for the system. A browser-‐based Administrator application is used to access the Automation Server. It enables system administrators to manage the system by defining rules and guidelines for personalization generation, viewing and managing orders, viewing exceptions generated during order processing and design generation, defining styles for use on each product, and viewing real-‐time generation data. The Administrator is web-‐based and can be accessed from any location.
The Automation Server houses the following databases:
Orders Database: Houses all order information: date created, job name, customer order ID, style required, required design, required text, and status of the order (pending, completed, etc.). Authorized personnel have the ability to preview and edit orders.
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The Orders view using the Administrator application
Exceptions Database: Whenever an issue is encountered processing an order and generating a personalization file, an exception is created and logged in the database. Authorized users can access this information, correct what is necessary, and then release the order to be processed once again. Issues encountered can include text strings that are too long for the sew field or requested text that violates the blacklist, which is a list of terms (profanity, for example) that will not be generated.
The Exceptions view using the Administrator application
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Configuration Database: The configuration database contains all the parameters for embroidery and print file generation. The information in this database can be entered directly by the Automation customer. Parameters for generation of embroidery and print personalization files can include:
• Blacklist: list of words not to be generated • Colors: colors available to the system • Designs: list of designs that can be combined with text
• Styles: collection of settings for embroidery and print, such as: text height, font, line spacing, and width compression to apply. Different styles can be created for each product, size, and location combinations.
• Kerning Overrides: overrides inherent font kerning, resulting in increased or decreased spacing between letter pairs for embroidery.
• Products: list of products with the dimensions of the sewable areas defined.
Additional configuration may be necessary depending on information received from Automation customer regarding the implementation of specific business logic.
The Products view using the Administrator application
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Administrator Application
The Administrator application is used to view and manage the information contained in each of the databases required for automated generation of personalization files. The application is web-‐based; therefore, it can be accessed from any computer that includes a supported browser.
In addition to using the Administrator to view and manage the Automation Server, it can also display useful performance information through two separate views:
• Real-‐time: Shows a graphical representation of the number of designs and exceptions generated over the last 60 seconds and 30 minutes.
• Dashboard: Shows a graphical representation of the number of designs processed and exceptions generated over the entire day.
Dashboard displays designs processed and exceptions generated for the entire day
2. ORDER PROCESSING
Pulse’s automated solution can work with the Automation customer’s existing order information. This requires the customer to deposit relevant order information, in the correct format, into Pulse’s database. Or, in some cases, the system can read the customer’s order information directly from their order files; for example, XML order files. The order information is placed into the Orders database on the Automation Server.
Each order would include the following type of information:
• Order Number: Used as a reference, this is the customer’s actual order number. • Job: This is a unique ID that references a particular personalization. Each personalization should have its
own unique job number. • Product: The unique identifier for the product to be personalized. • Style: The font style and layout to be used. • Personalization 1: Text to use for the first line of lettering. • Personalization 2: Text to use for the second line of lettering.
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• Thread Color 1 • Thread Color 2 • Print Color 1 • Print Color 2 • Design 1: Design to use in combination with text or on its own.
Processed order information is placed in the Orders database, where it can be viewed and managed through the Administrator application. If a problem is encountered while processing the order file (such as missing data), then an exception is created and an entry for this is added to the Orders database. Exceptions can be viewed and managed through the Administrator application.
3. PERSONALIZATION GENERATION
Embroidery Design Generator
The Embroidery Design Generator is a service that continuously scans the Orders database for new orders. Once found, the Embroidery Design Generator uses the order information, cross-‐references this information with the user-‐defined rules for personalization generation in the Configuration database, then uses Pulse’s industry-‐leading stitch engine to automatically generate the machine-‐ready embroidery file to the exact specifications required. Each personalization will be generated in its own separate job.
Once the embroidery has been generated, the machine embroidery file is created. One machine embroidery file is created per personalization and contains only a single personalization job. If a problem is encountered during embroidery generation, then an exception is created and placed into the Exceptions database. The order is held until the Administrator has reviewed, modified, and released it.
Automated embroidery design generation
Embroidery design generation can include support for one design with typically two lines of text but this can vary depending on the customer’s need
The system includes automatic height and width compression for text. If the system encounters lettering that is larger than the sew field, it will automatically adjust the height up to a specified amount. This height adjustment is a global setting that is a percentage (%) of the original letting height. Once the maximum amount of height
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adjustment has been reached, the system will apply width compression up to a specified amount. The amount of width compression allowed is also a global setting.
If more width and height compression is required than the maximum allowed, then the system will generate an exception. In the Administrator application, a user with proper permissions can open the order and modify the embroidery by changing the font manually or changing the size of the personalization, for example. Once the change is made, the order can be released for reprocessing.
All embroidery files are generated using the same fonts, stitch engine, and rules. This ensures that there is consistency and quality in all embroidery files. Identical job information from two different orders will produce exactly the same ready-‐to-‐sew embroidery files.
The Automation customer must supply the business rules required to set-‐up the Configuration database for embroidery generation.
Print Design Generator
The Print Design Generator service scans the Orders database looking for printing specific information. Using the information from the Orders database and consulting the Configuration database, the Print Design Generator automatically generates the production-‐ready print file. If a problem is encountered during the print file generation, then an exception is created and placed into the Exceptions database. The order is held until the Administrator has reviewed, modified, and released it.
Print templates must be created by the Automation customer. Template files can include the following:
• None, one, or multiple text elements • Design to combine with text elements • Default colors of text elements
All colors in the template are replaceable.
Automated print design generation
All templates used by the system are created by the Automation customer. In the templates, the personalization must be a modifiable text object and not a path. Using Pulse’s print engine, the personalization is generated automatically and a production-‐ready file of the personalization is generated.
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4. EMBROIDERY DESIGN DISPATCHING
The Design Dispatcher is a service that will listen to barcode requests from the customer’s Tajima LAN embroidery machines. Work orders can be printed with corresponding barcodes. The machine operator scans one barcode at a time to retrieve the desired embroidery file, which contains one personalization per file. The Design Dispatcher listens for these requests and finds the file generated by the Embroidery Design Generator. The Design Dispatcher assigns the correct needle numbers to the design and sends it to the embroidery machine, where it is automatically loaded onto the machine with those needle assignments. Medline will need to supply information about the thread colors loaded onto each of the LAN machines.
One Enterprise Networking LAN Machine license is required for each Tajima LAN-‐enabled embroidery machine.
Using barcode scanning to auto-‐load design to machine.
5. PRINT CLIENT FOR PRINT PRODUCTION
The Print Client waits for the machine operator to barcode scan the production worksheets in order to retrieve the requested print-‐ready files. The files are automatically sent for printing using the customer’s print driver.
Automated print production using barcode scanning
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A small sampling of our broad range of clients……
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Embroidery Design Software, Digital Printing Software, Tablet Technology, Production Automation. Only Pulse does it ALL!!!
