Technologies: Barcode / Barcode Verification

As bar code applications have become critical to a company’s success, the cost of scanning failure becomes ever more significant. Giant merchandisers such as Wal-Mart have leveled whopping fines of $50,000 or more on suppliers whose product labels repeatedly misread. Consequently, bar code verification systems, once exclusively used by printers and label vendors, are now commonly used for on-site printing. Verifiers “grade” a symbol based upon published standards criteria (see the linear and 2D standards).  AIM offers a layman’s explanation of these criteria as well as support documentation on why verification can be helpful to your bar code application.

Verification devices can be integrated in-line, attached to the printer to monitor the quality of every printed label or they can be used in a standalone configuration to audit batches of labels. In either case, verification can’t completely eliminate bar code performance problems. Verification can, however, provide a quantitative measure of print contrast and derive wide-to-narrow ratios, checking printed symbol conformance against symbology print quality standards.