Washington: King County Library (KCLS) System Debuts North America’s Largest Materials Sorter Hub in Renton

From KOMO News:

The King County Library System (KCLS) has opened a new central materials sorting facility in Renton, featuring what is believed to be the largest library materials sorting system in North America, an upgrade designed to speed delivery of books and other materials to library users across King County, officials said.

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The new equipment also changes working conditions for employees who spent years operating around the aging sorting system.

The quieter and more reliable equipment is improving employees’ day-to-day working environment, KCLS said.

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The new Central Sorter features four inbound lines. Upon trucks’ arrivals, drivers who travel to all 50 locations daily will unload and stack totes full of returned materials. Then, with the push of a button, the stacked totes are moved forward on automated conveyor belts, where two Lyngsoe System robots do the heavy lifting to break apart the stacks.

Each robot separates a tote every 15 seconds — an estimated 240 totes per hour and per robot.

Once the totes are broken apart, staff members stationed at six ergonomic sorting stations simply scan the physical items before they are routed to their next destination via a fast-paced conveyor-belt system.

Materials are then dropped into one of 186 chutes, each labeled with an outgoing location, and are stacked 4-high, ready for delivery drivers to pick up and take back out to KCLS libraries.

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