Happyshops from Merseburg aims to make its customers happier with board games, parlor games and puzzles. The mail order company has expanded rapidly in recent years and further growth is expected in the future. With a fully automated shipping line, the company believes it is ideally equipped for this.

Our warehouse contains 220,000 items. At peak times, we send up to 1,800 parcels a day all over the world," explains Robert Letsch, Managing Director of Happyshops GmbH. The online retailer uses various parcel service providers for this. "We therefore looked for partners who not only automate shipping, but are also able to determine the right carrier for each shipment fully automatically," Letsch continues: "All parcel service providers have their own special requirements for shipping labels. We therefore opted for a labeler from the labeling provider Bluhm Systeme. Not only can it print the many different label layouts, it can also take into account the different box dimensions when labeling."

Automating the packing line

At Happyshops, the order pickers arrive at the new packing line with their goods from the warehouse. They scan the order and pack the goods into shipping cartons of different sizes. A small identification label with a barcode is created for each box and attached to the box by hand.

From here, everything runs fully automatically: the parcel is sealed, weighed and measured. Weighing is carried out by a system from Janner Waagen GmbH in the Upper Palatinate. The software developed by Ximaj IT-Solutions GmbH from Rosenheim uses the factors of weight, dimensions and destination to determine the cheapest parcel service for each individual consignment. This data is transferred to the label printer from Bluhm Systeme GmbH in Rheinbreitbach.

Diverse requirements for shipping labels

The experts at the coding and marking provider recommended the robust Legi-Air 4050 for this task, which is suitable for continuous operation thanks to its stable design. The system can integrate print modules from all leading manufacturers and thus print labels with a resolution of up to 600 dpi. Data transfer and system control are quick and easy via Ethernet. A Zebra print module was integrated at Happyshops, which reliably prints the shipping labels at a speed of up to 400 millimetres per minute in accordance with the individual requirements of the parcel service providers.
The Legi-Air 4050 has a dispensing capacity of up to 80 labels per minute. "This dispensing speed can easily keep pace with our dispatch volume of 400 parcels per hour," says Letsch happily. The system also achieves high availability thanks to a label supply roll of up to 450 linear meters. For the labeling of Happyshops parcels with varying dimensions, a sensor was mounted on the stamp plate that detects the distance to the product to be labeled. Additional labeling reliability is guaranteed by the "label on stamp sensor", which checks whether there is actually a label on the stamp plate.

Validation of the print

After the labeling process, the label print is also validated. An autofocus camera checks the content for correctness and plausibility. The lens also checks whether the shipping label is both machine-readable and can be read by the parcel carrier. "This step is intended to prevent incorrect shipments," explains Letsch. The parcels are then transported to the individual carrier belts, from where they are collected in the evening.
"We opted for Bluhm systems because the device can not only fulfill our diverse labelling tasks, but is also easy to operate. Changing the label rolls is also very easy," explains Letsch. For sustainability reasons, it is also important for Happyshops that all devices can go into energy-saving mode. After 60 seconds of inactivity, the entire packaging system, including the labeler, goes into standby. "That also makes everyone a little happier," says Robert Letsch happily.

This article appeared in materialfluss 5/21.