Barcoding News

Thermal transfer printing provides for a longer lasting print as compared to direct thermal printing. The reason thermal transfer prints last longer is due to the use of a thermal transfer ribbon during the printing process.  A thermal transfer ribbon is required to obtain a long lasting print.  However, choosing the proper thermal transfer ribbon to fit your printer and application can be difficult.  Help choosing the correct thermal transfer ribbon has arrived!

Follow the simple steps below to identify the proper ribbon:

Step 1: Ensure you have a Thermal Transfer Printer

Ribbon is only used with Thermal Transfer printers.  A ribbon cannot be used with a Direct Thermal printers as they do not have the proper internal mechanical components to hold or thread the ribbon.
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If your business takes any kind of card payments then you probably have been coming across the term “EMV” quite a bit recently. If you haven’t, then it’s a good time to get educated given EMV will be changing the way payments are made and who will be held accountable for fraud in the US.

EMV enabled cards are the type that have the small smart chip on them as well as the traditional magnetic stripe. Compared to  magnetic stripes, EMV cards are much more secure against fraudulent usage and copied cards.

With the October 1, 2015 EMV compliance deadline coming up, getting up to speed on how you can ensure your business isn’t going to be held accountable for fraudulent usage is a must. Barcodes, Inc has you covered with our new EMV Learning Page and the expertise to provide you will payments solutions for any budget.

SATO has designed a true plug and play printer with their new CLNX series.  The CLNX series has been engineered to be simple to use and easy to assimilate with existing systems.  The CLNX also is offered in two different size options, a 4 inch (CL4NX) and a 6 inch (CL6NX).   With its multiple sizes, energy efficiency and coreless ribbon, the CLNX series may be the perfect label printer to easily plug into many different printer applications.

Key features of the new CLNX include:

• Accessible operations from its 3.5-inch color display and onboard video tutorials
• Unparalleled communication and emulation capabilities
• Simple maintenance with its tool free printhead and platens replacement
• Outstanding print quality consistent across a wide range and size of labels
• Superior rugged aluminum die-cast construction
• Equipped for global distribution with 30+ display languages and 40+ print character sets

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When explaining data tracking, the first question our customers ask is “Aren’t asset tracking and inventory tracking the same thing?” The short answer is no.

Assets are “permanent” objects that belong to a company. They are items a business uses internally, such as computers, tools or educational material. An asset is always tracked as a unique item. For example, even though you may give 10 of the exact same PC, you are managing each PC as an individual item with its own unique barcode label. You want to ensure that you have accurate information on each specific asset’s location, condition, purchase date, value, custodian and most recent maintenance.

Inventory tracking refers to objects that are sold, distributed or otherwise consumed by a company. These “temporary” objects include retail items and office supplies. For example, you may have 100 boxes of staples in inventory and when you use one box the tracked quantity decreases by one. You are not concerned with what specific box was used, but rather that 1 of 100 was removed. Ultimately, you want to know how many you have in stock and when to order more.

To begin, compare your objects with the chart below to determine if you need inventory or asset tracking:

For more assistance finding the right data collection solution for your needs, contact us at Barcodes, Inc.

The transition to a mobile experience in retail and consumer-focused applications has ushered in a range of new hardware to support these new demands. Even though the focus has been towards retail environments, manufacturing and warehouse facilities have been finding ways to improve efficiency with these new mobile technologies.

Shipping/receiving and inventory are two applications that have taken advantage of the wide range of mobile printers currently available to improve performance and accuracy. In a warehouse environment, employees are constantly on-the-go and being able to print labels when an order is picked or stock is put away saves time from being tied to a fixed print station. With on-demand label printing, employees will have an increase in efficiency and better control of production.

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Many food packaging and repackaging businesses have a need to find a packaging label that has an adhesive suitable for indirect food contact.  Most importantly these business need a labeling solution that meets Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines for indirect food contact.   Indirect food contact is defined as a substance that may come into interaction with food as part of packaging or processing equipment, but are not intentionally added directly to the food. Using a label that doesn’t meet food contact requirements can potentially lead to contaminated food, product returns and fines for having unapproved adhesives used in a food application.

Zebra manufactures several sizes and types of labels that have an adhesive formulation developed to meet FDA regulation 175.105, indirect food contact (see this list for FDA approved labels).  These labels are approved to be used for indirect contact food applications such as, label food in a retail location to large scale packaging of food from a manufacturing facility.

Avoid the hassle and expense of using non-food approved labels by introducing Zebra labels, which meet FDA regulation 175.105 for indirect food contact, into your food application today.

Contact your dedicated BarcodesInc representative today, for more information.

With the introduction of NFC, RFID has become a trendy technology, but is it really a necessity for your business? Let’s go over some of the differences between barcodes and RFID:

• Line of Sight – Rather than using light to collect or read a number from a barcode, radio waves are used to read a number from the RFID tag. Therefore, RFID does not require a line of sight to operate, but rather you can wave the RFID reader to read the tags.
• Multiple Item Scanning – Since RFID does not require line of sight it is not necessary to present each tag to the reader separately (as is required for barcodes); instead, all tags within the range of the reader can be read almost simultaneously as they pass the reader.
• Automation & Accuracy – Barcodes require a person to manually read each individual barcode, which can lead to manual read errors and mis-scanning. RFID, on the other hand, is a fully automated solution with a higher accuracy rate.

Although there is a huge savings in RFID technology from a resource, time and accuracy standpoint, we rarely recommend a business migrating from a completely manual process to a RFID solution. Companies that currently incorporate barcodes face the best return on investment from a RFID solution. Talk to one of our experts today to get a full assessment of your business.

Barcode labels come in a variety of types and materials to meet the needs of a range of applications. From a temporary shipping label to a rugged asset tag that needs to endure the challenges of outdoor use, there are labels that can meet these needs.

Knowing what type of label you are using is almost impossible to tell from just looking at it but there are a few key tests you can conduct to figure out what type and material your label is. Following these steps you can be assured you order the same label your application needs.

1. Try to tear the label in half

If you can tear the label in half we know right away that it’s a paper stock as opposed to a synthetic material like polypropylene or polyester.  Synthetic materials may stretch and deform a bit but will not be tear-able by hand.
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Specifically driven by the use of mobile devices, 2D barcodes have emerged from the realm of high cost, speciality applications to everyday uses like retail couponing, event ticketing, and advertising. Historically, the choice between a traditional 1D laser scanner or 2D imager was primarily driven by the large cost and performance difference. Jump to today and 2D imagers have made drastic technological improvements which have brought down cost and improved overall performance beyond laser scanners on all types of barcodes.

For many businesses the decision to go with a full 2D imager is still based around cost despite the improvements and added capabilities they can provide. This is where the new Honeywell Voyager 1452g is the perfect solution for any business that may be on the fence about 2D imaging.  All of the units are technically imagers but some are available with a 1D barcode only  scanning option at a significant lower cost. These units can later be upgraded (firmware update) to enable full 2D capabilities when needed.

This flexibility makes the Voyager 1452g an exceptional value for businesses that require the versatility of area-imaging technology today or may need it in the future.

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In today’s mobile-centric world, having reliable and secure wireless connectivity is expected from every business. From employees to customers, the vast majority of computing is done on mobile devices, smartphones, and tablets which require a robust network capable of providing constant connectivity.

The greatest challenge most small and mid-sized business faced in the past was the costs involved in providing an effective wireless network. In the past, this caused many businesses to compromise the performance and security of their network for cost savings.

Lucky for all of us, Zebra’s WiNG Express product line provides high WLAN performance and advanced security features normally found in enterprise-level applications at a fraction of the cost and time to deploy. Simply power up your access points and they will automatically be discovered and provisioned with pre-defined configurations you then easily manage from an intuitive and simple-to-grasp interface.

With WiNG Express you can provide your business with the wireless network it needs today and into the future without making any compromises.