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The Frustration of Barcodes
 For some strange reason, I've gotten calls from three different clients this month with questions about barcode readability. They all had different printing or mailing hardware and their concerns were varied. But the bottom line in all cases was the barcodes that were being printed on transactional or direct mail pieces were failing when attempting to read them during operations further downstream.
This is a big problem of course. You take a huge productivity hit during the inserting operation when the machines are stopping every few hundred pages because they can't read the barcodes. Not only that, the risk of mis-matched pages or other integrity errors are greatly increased whenever operator intervention is required. In the worst cases, entire jobs can even be pulled off the inserters due to excessive read errors. Your costs go up as you pay for reprinting, extra materials, and maybe even postage recovery.
It Isn't Hopeless - There are Lots of Approaches
I can't tell you exactly what to do if you are experiencing problems like this. Every situation is different. But here are five ideas you might consider:
1. Barcode location - The ability of a printer to consistently image barcodes sometimes depends on where the code appears on the page. Imaging problems are commonly associated with paper movement. It matters if the code is positioned too close to the edge and whether the code is on the front or the back side of the page. Likewise, cameras on the inserters might have trouble reading the codes at one spot or another on the page.
2. Add a camera at the printer - If you are convinced that there's nothing you can do to improve print quality, adding a camera at the printer will at least catch the errors at the time they occur instead of waiting until you're in the middle of an inserting or inkjet job. To be effective, the camera on the printers should be the same as the units mounted on the finishing equipment. Companies with roll-to-roll printers find it easier to add cameras than those owning cut sheet devices with enclosed paper paths.
3. Modify the barcode size - Making the image larger could reduce the read problems. Of course there are limitations from an aesthetic aspect and also from a practical point of view. If a barcode needs to show through an envelope window, you can make it only so big.
4. Remove unnecessary data - 2D barcodes can contain a large amount of data. And they also feature data replication within the barcode. The more data you have in a barcode, the lower the replication factor. This can affect the readability of a barcode that might have minor printing defects. Alpha characters use up more space than numeric or binary. You might be able to convert alpha data to some other format to save space and increase replication.
5. Change the material - Paper finishes, porosity, and the location of perforations or die cuts can affect the way that toner or ink adheres to the material.
No Set Answers
This isn't a complete list of course. There are a lot of variables that can affect your ability to print good barcodes and then read them later on. The difficulties you are experiencing may actually be the result of a combination of factors such as those above. It usually takes some research, testing, logging, and probably some trial and error efforts to really identify the problem and then implement a manageable solution.
If your barcode readability problems are frustrating you, the important thing is to consider all the different approaches that will work for you in your particular environment. Keep trying things until you find the solution that is the best fit. |
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