Monitoring performance of a warewasher
First Claim
1. A method for monitoring operations of a warewasher over a predetermined period of time, wherein one or more racks are used to carry one or more articles through the warewasher, the method comprising:
- associating a unique identifier (ID) to each rack used to carry one or more articles through the warewasher, wherein each rack is labeled with an identification tag specifying the unique ID assigned to that rack;
reading a unique ID assigned to a first rack as an identification tag of the first rack is detected while the first rack is being provided to the warewasher; and
communicating the unique ID assigned to the first rack to a remote computer for storage in a database.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for collecting information associated with warewashing activities is disclosed. Articles to be cleaned by a warewasher are placed in racks designed to fit inside a wash chamber of the warewasher. Each rack is assigned a unique identifier (ID). No two racks are associated with the same unique ID. An Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) tag is embedded within or placed on the outer shell of each rack. The RFID tag of a rack is programmed with the unique ID assigned to the rack. An RFID reader reads the unique ID of each rack as the racks are placed into the warewasher. The RFID reader transmits the unique ID to a host computer where the unique ID is stamped with a time reference, stored and eventually uploaded to a server computer. The unique ID and associated time reference are analyzed by the server computer, the host computer or a client computer connected to the server computer in order to monitor performance of the warewasher. For example, the analysis may calculate the total number of racks provided to the wash chamber over a given period in time.
47 Citations
52 Claims
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1. A method for monitoring operations of a warewasher over a predetermined period of time, wherein one or more racks are used to carry one or more articles through the warewasher, the method comprising:
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associating a unique identifier (ID) to each rack used to carry one or more articles through the warewasher, wherein each rack is labeled with an identification tag specifying the unique ID assigned to that rack;
reading a unique ID assigned to a first rack as an identification tag of the first rack is detected while the first rack is being provided to the warewasher; and
communicating the unique ID assigned to the first rack to a remote computer for storage in a database. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A system for collecting information associated with a warewasher, wherein one or more racks used to carry one or more articles through the warewasher include an identification tag specifying a unique identifier (ID) assigned to each rack, the system comprising:
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a tag reader detecting the identification tag of each rack provided to the warewasher and generating signals indicative of the unique ID specified by each identification tag;
a host computer connected to the tag reader by a first communication path, the host computer receiving signals generated by the tag reader over the first communication path and decoding the generated signals to obtain the unique ID assigned to each rack provided to the warewasher; and
a communication device receiving the obtained unique ID'"'"'s from the host computer over a second communication path and transmitting the obtained unique ID'"'"'s to a remote computer for storage. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A computer program storage medium readable by a computing system and encoding a computer program for executing a computer process for monitoring operations of a warewasher over a predetermined period of time, wherein racks used to carry articles through the warewasher are labeled with an identification tag specifying a unique identifier assigned to each rack, the computer process comprising:
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reading a unique ID assigned to a first rack as an identification tag of the first rack is detected while the first rack is being provided to the warewasher; and
communicating the unique ID assigned to the first rack to a remote computer for storage in a database. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A method for monitoring operations of a warewasher over a predetermined period of time, wherein one or more racks are used to carry one or more articles through the warewasher, the method comprising:
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associating a unique identifier (ID) to each rack used to carry one or more articles through the warewasher, wherein each rack is labeled with an identification tag specifying the unique ID assigned to that rack;
receiving a unique ID assigned to a first rack from a host computer, the host computer operably coupled to a tag reader reading the identification tag to determine the unique ID assigned to the first rack while the first rack is being provided to the warewasher; and
storing the unique ID assigned to the first rack in a database. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. A system for collecting information associated with a warewasher, wherein one or more racks used to carry one or more articles through the warewasher include an identification tag specifying a unique identifier (ID) assigned to each rack, the system comprising:
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a tag reader detecting the identification tag of each rack provided to the warewasher and generating signals indicative of the unique ID specified by each identification tag, the tag reader providing the signals to a local computer over a first communication path; and
a remote computer connected to the local computer over a network connection, the remote computer receiving the signals over the network connection and decoding the signals to obtain the unique ID assigned to each rack provided to the warewasher. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
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Specification