Equipment: Speaking in codes

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ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, has issued two new standards this year that relate to bar codes and 2D codes. ISO 15394:2009 sets out guidelines for the design of logistics labels containing bar codes and 2D symbols, while ISO 28219:2009 provides a standard for direct marking and labelling of individual parts or packaged items.

So what do these standards say? Are they helpful or burdensome to users and producers of packaging? And how do they relate to existing standards governing the use and design of bar codes and 2D codes?

ISO 15394:2009 replaces and updates ISO 15394:2000 but according to Henri Barthel, director of global partnerships and projects with GS1 Global, which designs and implements standards, the latest edition doesn't contain any significant changes.

"The ISO rules are that any published standard needs to be withdrawn, confirmed or amended every five years. The latest edition of 15394 was republished with minor updates only," he says.

The other standard, ISO 28219:2009, ‘Packaging - Labelling and direct product marking with linear bar code and two-dimensional symbols', on the other hand, is a completely new standard designed to harmonise on-pack coding between different industry sectors. It provides guidelines for marking item-level packs with machine- and human-readable symbols and for formatting data presented in linear bar code, 2D or human-readable form.

"A number of different product labelling and marking standards exist, each designed to meet the requirements of a specific industry standard," says Hirokuni Ono, chair of the ISO technical committee on packaging, which developed the standard. "For effective and economic use within and between industry sectors, one common, multi-industry standard such as ISO 28219:2009 is a necessity. A standard linear bar code or two-dimensional product will facilitate the automation of inventory and quality control and life-cycle management."

This might sound overwhelming, but there is no need for packaging users and producers to start panicking about the cost of implementing the new standard.

For starters, the new standard is voluntary, as John Aldous, of bar code software and recognition equipment specialist Supplyline Auto ID, points out. "As a non-governmental organisation, ISO has no legal authority to enforce implementation of its standards. ISO does not regulate or legislate," he explains. "However, countries may decide to adopt ISO standards as regulations or refer to them in legislation. In addition, although ISO standards are voluntary, they may become a market requirement, as has happened in the case of ISO 9001 quality management systems or of dimensions of freight containers and bank cards."

Code of practice
Secondly, the standard is really just formalising on paper what is happening in practice most of the time. As Ian Russell, managing director of Codeway, explains: "There is ongoing standardisation activity which usually simply regularises what is already going on. Effectively, what they are doing is standardising EAN [now GS1] and the identifiers that were introduced years ago for identifying groups of data."

Companies who supply the major retailers will already be following GS1 standards for bar coding. "GS1 standards are widely used across the industry, particularly relating to retail bar codes and the associated supply chain," affirms Janet Thorpe, director of Cobalt IS Auto ID.

The GS1 system provides for the use of unambiguous numbers to identify goods. These numbers can be represented in bar code symbols to enable their electronic reading. The system is designed to overcome the limitations of using company, organisation, or sector-specific coding systems, and to make trading more efficient.

In addition to providing unique identification numbers, GS1 provides for supplementary information, such as best-before dates, serial numbers and batch numbers, which can appear in bar code symbol form. Currently, bar code symbols are used as the data carriers, but other technologies, such as radio frequency tags, are being developed within EPCglobal as carriers of GS1 data.

"Today the GS1 General Specifications provide a comprehensive set of standards for general retail and a new suite of GS1 General Specifications application standards for regulated healthcare trade items are making their way through the final approval phase in GS1's Global Standards Management Process," says GS1 Global's Barthel.

The new ISO standard was developed in consultation with GS1 and the majority of GS1 standards are also ISO-compliant, so, generally speaking, companies that adhere to GS1 standards will also meet the new ISO 28219:2009 standard.

As Codeway's Russell puts it: "ISO is an overarching standard. Members of GS1 just get on and follow GS1 standards, which are well established and constantly evolving, and others know what to do if they want to do something different."

He says having one trans-industry coding system makes it simpler to process code data, and gives the example of a mail order company that uses several different couriers for delivery, each with their own policies for how on-label bar codes should be structured.

"If all these courier companies were to adopt the same standard, it would make it much simpler for the mail order company to implement an automatic bagging and labelling system, as each courier company would be using the same data and identifiers."

A common system will also help companies with international trading partners, he says. "The processing system knows what data it's looking at because it's standardised, so from an international trade perspective, each company in each country knows the standard to which they should operate so that companies in other countries are able to identify the products and process data that is carried on them."

For manufacturers of coding and marking hardware, the new ISO standard will have little or no impact.

"We have not yet experienced a case where hardware has had to be changed," says Thorpe. "It is important to specify the right piece of hardware for the application. Our hardware supports all recognised bar coding formats. Most changes are accommodated within the software supplying the data."

Similarly, Ian Byfield, engagement manager of AIDC (Automatic Identification and Data Capture), says: "The printers currently used can generally print within the new standards - but in the case of direct marking, changes may be needed to older inkjet printers which do not have the technology to prevent the ink running to a point where it makes the code unreadable."

High standards
Barcode quality is generally measured across seven attributes using an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) grading system and ISO accredited verification device. There is a minimum expectation of bar code quality within GS1 and ISO standards; however, according to Thorpe, many producers have their own preferences, often with a higher pass grade than the standard.

So with compliance with the new ISO standard a software rather than a hardware challenge, from a coding equipment perspective, the focus is on ensuring codes are printed accurately and clearly.

Linx, for example, recently launched the IJ350 coder for large character marking (LCM) to meet these demands through a self-cleaning printhead for higher quality printing and error-free coding using integrated software from Claricom.

ATD Inkjet Systems, meanwhile, says it supplies inks that address some of the problems that have historically deterred companies from printing codes directly onto outer cases.

"In the past, inkjet printers produced good codes on recycled board but after a day or two, the scan levels reduced to a C [the minimum acceptable code standard]. The problem related to the bleaches used in the recycling process. This problem has now been completely solved with improvements in ink technology and nowadays any recycled carton can be coded with a grade-A bar code and quality will not deteriorate over time," says director Paul Reeve.

With kraft board, Reeve says one of the issues is that the fibre structure is more porous than that of recycled material, so the ink spreads further, affecting the edge contrast of the vertical lines of the barcode. He says this can be overcome with the latest inks.

In summary, according to Ian Byfield, what is important with the new standards is that people at both ends of a product's journey can communicate through the codes. So any company that applies codes to their products should ensure that everyone below them in the supply chain can actually read what they print, all of the time.

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CODING EQUIPMENT ROUND-UP
• Markem-Imaje has developed an energy-saving function for its SmartDate 5 thermal transfer coder which is said to reduce the amount of power consumed by half
• Videojet used Interpack 2008 as the launch-pad for its 1510 small-character inkjet printer. Designed for medium-duty applications, the printer features smart ink cartridges, which register if the wrong ink has been inserted for the programmed job
• Domino Printing Sciences used the show to launch its C-Series outer case coders for the food and beverage industry, and its C6000+ adjacent side coder for the food industry. The C6000+ uses a single printer to code two adjacent sides of a carton
• Another machine previewed at Interpack was Datalase's new laser coder. The coder uses fibre optic technology, said to be faster than Co2 laser technology, to print directly on to board or labels
• A new entry-level version of Wolke's thermal inkjet printer, the m600, is now available in the UK from Sunala. The m600 Basic can drive two printheads with printing speeds of up to 300m per minute
• The IJ350 outer case coder from Linx Printing Technologies incorporates a self-cleaning printhead with a patented nozzle protection system, which is said to improve performance and reduce the overall cost of ownership
• The ACF 400 offline intermittent carton coder from Allen Coding Systems is designed to code up to 600 cartons, sleeves, blister cards, leaflets or cut labels per minute