FDBusiness.com

Print and apply equipment specialist Logopak is to launch a new system to verify barcodes through the labelling process at this year’s Total Processing & Packaging show.

The new system will work to ISO standards and is intended to meet bar code verification procedures that are demanded by retailers to ensure label legibility through the supply chain.

Logopak said the system allows all pallet and case labels to be verified instead of the practice of samples being taken from a run.

It will check that the labels are graded to ISO or ANSI standards laid down by GS1, the international bar code standards organisation.

Logopak sales director Howard Jagger said: ”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.

“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.”

Instead, Logopak’s system uses technology licensed from verification specialist Axicon and an innovative mechanical design that integrates verification with the print and 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,” said Jagger.