Bar code verification procedures demanded by retailers to ensure label legibility at every point in the supply chain can now be carried out automatically to ISO standards as part of the labelling process, using a new high speed quality control system being launched at Total by print & apply specialist Logopak.
It allows all pallet and case labels to be verified, rather than samples taken from a run, and the labels graded to ISO or ANSI standards laid down by GS1, the international bar code standards organisation.
“Up to now verifying instruments have required calibration and controlled lighting conditions such as a QA lab could provide, so manual sampling methods were employed on an off-line basis to ensure that labels would read and avoid severe financial penalties from retailers,” explains Logopak sales director Howard Jagger.
“Even so there was no guarantee that every label would meet the retailers’ standards and rogue labels could pass through undetected, possibly triggering a penalty of £500 or more.”
The Logopak system replaces scientific instruments with an industrial-quality unit using technology licensed exclusively from verification specialist Axicon and an innovative mechanical design that integrates verification with the print & apply machine, so allowing all labels to be checked continuously as they are applied.
It provides full evaluation of the bar code characteristics as laid down by GSl, as well as diagnostic data for remedial action should a bar code fail to meet the standard set. “This ensures that bar codes can be read by different scanners in different circumstances along the supply chain, such as light levels, distance and conveyor speeds,” explains Howard Jagger.
“Scanners typically fitted to print & apply labellers will only tell you that the bar code is the right code and good enough to be read by that particular scanner, under the conditions at that time, but nothing more. Only a verifier to ISO/IEC 15426-1, as used in the Logopak system, can give the quality grading demanded by retailers.”
Logopak International Limited
Tel: 01904 692333
Email: info@logopak.net
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