Barcoding News

The Aomori prefectural government and local apple farmers plan to introduce a barcode system that will allow customers to check the history of each apple they buy. The move was prompted by growing calls for safer food, particularly in foreign countries.

Aomori Prefecture, a prime apple growing area in northern Japan, is seeking to expand the export of its apples to foreign markets. The new system will use the very common QR Code, a two-dimensional barcode. QR codes can be read by mobile phones, giving the customer information on where the apple came from and how it was cared for, such as how often pesticides were used, and even providing a photo and message from the farmer who grew the fruit. The data will be available in Japanese, Chinese and English.

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TSL has announced a new wrist mount and belt holster accessory for the 1128 Bluetooth UHF RFID Reader, facilitating fast, accurate and cost-effective tracking of products, assets and data in such applications as retail, logistics, warehousing and distribution.

The 1128 Bluetooth UHF RFID Reader is designed to communicate wirelessly with a variety of Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices, including enterprise handhelds, consumer phones, touchscreen MP3 players, tablets and PCs. Using the new MC40 Wrist Mount and carrying the 1128 Bluetooth UHF RFID Reader in the Belt Holster, data can be captured and transmitted completely hands-free via automatic RFID scanning.

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Question

My Star thermal printer feeds paper but is not printing at all.

Answer

The cause could be that the paper is not thermal-coated or it was loaded upside down. To verify that the roll is thermal-coated, scratch the surface of the paper with a coin or nail. If the top coat shows a gray mark where the scratch was made, the paper was thermal-coated. Next, verify the thermal paper was loaded correctly and try printing again (see illustration).

For additional assistance with or finding the right Star printer for your needs, contact us at Barcodes Inc.

Barcode label printers come in  variety of sizes and types depending on how fast and much they can print. Normally they get grouped into 3 main categories: desktop, tabletop, and heavy industrial. Outside of the obvious size difference between them, their overall print duty cycle varies quite a bit as well. The main concern when choosing the right size printer for your needs is considering the long term print volume you will be dealing with. Any printer can keep printing all day but the main issue will be how often you will have to reload media and replace common parts like your printhead and platen roller.

This infographic looks at Zebra’s most popular printers in each category and provides a breakdown of when and where they are best suited to be used.

For more assistance finding the right Zebra printer for your specific needs, contact us at Barcodes Inc.

The new ZD500R extends Zebra‘s broad range of RFID printers by adding UHF RFID printing and encoding to Zebra’s line of industry-leading  compact thermal desktop printers. Designed for applications where space is at a premium, the ZD500R offers simple, one-touch printing and encoding, straightforward loading, and automatic RFID calibration, making it ideal for applications where technical support staff is limited, such as retail in-store exception tagging.

The printer supports both direct thermal and thermal transfer printing and is compatible with inlays from all leading suppliers. The ZD500R can be used with a variety of RFID labels and tags from small, item-level hang tags to large case and pallet labels. By encoding RFID inlays that are spaced closer together, the ZD500R enables lower media costs, less media waste and fewer roll changes.

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SummerEyes Custom Woodcrafts is a small business that specializes in the creation of wood products for the home and garden. The owner of Summer Eyes, Ross MacKay, prides himself on his custom wood planter boxes, arbors, trellises and different types of nesting houses and feeders.

During the warmer months, Mr. MacKay and his staff attend many craft shows and farmers’ markets to showcase their wares. SummerEyes only accepted cash or check, but Mr. MacKay and his staff saw that it would be more convenient for customers to be able to pay with credit cards as well. He began to look for a mobile POS solution that would allow him to begin accepting credit cards, easily process payments and print a receipt.

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Germany’s leading provider of post and parcel services Deutsche Post DHL is equipping its employees with 55,000 Honeywell Dolphin 99EX mobile computers. The devices will enable approximately 60,000 employees to track and trace millions of DHL parcels delivered each day across Germany, including  more than seven million parcels during the peak holiday season.

More than 2,500 users from Deutsche Post DHL’s parcels division tested 11 different devices before choosing the Dolphin 99EX for offering the best combination of ergonomics, robustness, capacity, performance and ease of use. The device’s long battery life and ability to quickly photograph items to prove condition at the point of delivery were further factors.

Honeywell’s Remote MasterMind device management software will help to keep Deutsche Post’s drivers fully operational. The software makes an IT administrator’s job easier with the ability to manage all of the company’s mobile devices from a central system. Ensuring that each device has updated software and is properly configured reduces errors and prevents device downtime that can slow the driver. Initially the software is being used to manage all 55,000 devices across all of the company’s mail division depots. The company plans to further streamline the maintenance and upgrading of devices by adding software distribution and device support via Remote MasterMind in the future.

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The CN51 (Windows Mobile and Android versions)  follows a long heritage of industry firsts for Intermec in the wide area wireless space, with that  being the first rugged mobile computer that is dual operating system capable to be certified on all of the major North American wireless carriers.

Unlike the performance limitations of smartphones and competing mobile computers, the CN51 is the only rugged yet ergonomic solution with the versatility to support both the Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5 and Android 4.1 operating systems, and deliver the benefits of a rugged solution such as superior battery life, excellent system performance and reliability.

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Honeywell has released the Dolphin 6110 upgraded mobile handheld computer to help retail departments or clothing stores accurately track inventory, increase profits and customer satisfaction and improve order fulfillment. The device also helps retail workers conduct merchandise audits and price look ups, and assist customers.

On the outside, the Dolphin 6110 mobile computer looks identical to Honeywell’s popular Dolphin 6100 scanner: it is light, pocket-sized and stylish enough to look good on a retail floor, the company claims. On the inside, however, the Dolphin 6110 has upgraded technology, including an 800 MHz processor, updated barcode scanning and decoding capabilities, increased memory and a broader WLAN radio frequency range.

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Seagull Scientific has released their Service Release 2 of BarTender 10.1 which is available immediately.

In addition to a number of bug fixes in response to customer feedback, this release features:

• An improved sample label for GHS (the international system for chemical labeling) and an updated technical white paper
• An improved sample label for PTI (the US FDA’s Produce Traceability Initiative), including voice pick data as required by some big box retailers
• Certification for Windows 8.1.

Both samples provide a great starting point for creating your own labels to meet these important industry requirements.

It is encouraged that all users of BarTender 10.1 to update to SR2 which is  at www.DownloadBarTender.com.