Higher Investment Costs Typically Apply to the Uninformed - Wireless Barcode Scanners

Wireless Barcode Scanners

There are more than 400 international barcode brands currently in use today. When influential the right symbology for your business, it is best to use a universal influential supported by most manufacturers. The other factors to consider are the type and amount of data to be encoded and the cost of the associated scanning and printing equipment.

Generally, each character in a bar code is represented by a series of bars and spaces. The code includes a quiet zone, start code, data, stop code and trailing quiet zone. Some codes support check digits to ensure data integrity. The check digits are usually located before the stop code.

The compactness of a barcode is defined by the narrowest element (in this case width when displayed horizontally) of the barcode. There are three standard densities or resolutions:

• High density/resolution - less than.009 inches (.23mm)
• Medium density/resolution - between.009 inches (.23mm) and.020 inches (.50mm)
• Low density/resolution - greater than.020 inches (.50mm)

For the most effective scanning, despite of the type of input device, you should use the lowest density possible that will print on the area available on your application. In a nutshell, the lower the density, the larger the graphic and a larger depth of field for the scanner to recognize the symbols.

The low density symbols can be printed on any dot matrix, inkjet or laser printer thus reducing the cost of high density printing and scanning equipment. As we said earlier, the key to selection is the space available on the your application, e.g. shipping labels, price tags, etc. Many buyers purchase high cost printing equipment when their standard office printer will suffice.

The symbologies are defined by four criteria:

• Character Set - alphanumeric or numeric
• Number of ASCII Characters - the standard symbologies range from 10 to 128
• Maximum Characters per inch - the standard symbologies range from 9.4 to 24.2
• Variable Length - barcodes are either variable length or not.

The above is only intended as an preliminary primer to the barcode technologies. The objective is to provide a growing knowledge base for businesses to use in making purchase decisions. The uninformed will pay more for equipment and systems they do not need.

The next articles in this series will continue to describe and inform on barcode technologies. Specifically, the next article will be on the nine symbologies most accepted by the international industrial community.

Wireless Barcode Scanner