March/April 2003

If you want to keep up with the next technology on the horizon, you might want to look out for a high-speed garment sorting machine that's on the way from Red Ledge. The company actually specialises in product tracking, warehouse management and real-time systems, but says one of its customers found existing sorting machines too expensive, unreliable and inaccurate, and complained that they were unable to cope with different types of hanger.

Red Ledge is therefore developing its own machine under the project name GENUS, and has now been awarded Government funding under the Dti Smart Award scheme to bring it to market. Graham Lee, project manager, is seen here accepting the award from small business minister Nigel Griffiths.

GENUS is designed for retail distribution centres and manufacturing plants. It has a throughput of 120 single garments a minute, and is said to be able to handle any variation of plastic and metal hangers. Red Ledge has added its expertise in barcode scanning, RF technology and data conversion to build what it hopes is a compelling package.