What is the Difference Between Barcode Verification and Barcode Scanning?

These two terms are tossed around nearly interchangeably, but in reality they are not.  When you hear about barcode verification this is a specific process by which barcodes are checked for quality while a barcode scanning is what is used to verify inventory and ensure the item matches what is input in the computerized system.  This difference is one that can be vastly misunderstood and cause confusion for those who don’t understand the difference between the two. 

To help with some of the differentiation between the two here are some explanations:

•    Barcode verification – Thee process of verification tests the quality and scanability of the barcode to ensure the optical characteristics meet the industry standards.  These standards are set by the ISO and other groups to set the guidelines for barcodes.  The verification process is predictive to be able to offer 100% scanability of an entire printing of barcodes.  The purpose of this verification process is to ensure the barcodes are accurate and scanable to make the sales process for items much easier to execute.

•    Barcode scanning – Barcodes are scanned at times to ensure the product the barcode is attached to matches the information programed into the computer as the description of the item.  This process is used for inventory accuracy, sales recording and discount pricing strategies to be the process that is used at the selling end of the barcode travel.

Whether you need barcode verification equipment or scanners the right company to turn to for the necessary items is Provident Group.  With a great menu of barcode scanners and verifiers you can make sure your company is able to perform the barcode process you need to utilize.  These scanners are used in many parts of a business such as manufacturing, shipping and in the sales process.  Ensuring barcodes are accurate helps to ensure costly mistakes are avoided for all involved.

Chamber Seals are the Key to Stopping Leaks

What is more expensive, the ink used in the flexographic printing process or the chamber seals used?  The answer is simple, the ink is much more expensive and to ignore the need to have the right chamber seals on the end of the doctor chamber is simply foolish at best. 

The challenge for many printers is make sure they have the right seals for the job.  Chamber seals come in a variety of materials and diameters to make it a challenge to ensure you have the right ones.  Even when you do have the correct end seal on the chamber, if it’s not properly lubricated you will have to change the seals out more often than you want to, creating frustrating down time that does nothing but cost you money.

What can you do to avoid expensive leaks in ink and down time of your printing presses?  The first thing to do is work with your flexographic accessories supplier to ensure you have the right items for the job.  If your supplier is Provident Group you can feel confident you have what you need.

Once you know you have the items required, make sure the right seal is being used for the right job.  With a variety of materials to choose from, every end seal has an appropriate ink and substrate pairing to be used with. 

Finally, if you have the right items and are sure the job is set up correctly make sure the chamber seals are properly lubricated.  This will help them last longer and at least give them a chance to live through the expected time in service you need from them.

By following all these steps you can help avoid costly ink leaks which waste money on expensive inks and cause a mess to be cleaned up.  Avoid down time with the right chamber end seals from Provident Group.

To know more information about chamber seals please visit the website.

Steps for Choosing the Right Barcode Verifier

Barcodes are a huge part of our lives  as everything we purchase has a barcode on it.  How the items we buy get from the manufacturer to the shelves for us to purchase them takes a variety of barcodes and different shipping uses.  This makes barcodes a bigger part of our lives than we could ever imagine.  When a manufacturing company needs to make use of a barcode verifier they need to make sure it will be the right item for the job they need done. 

An affordable barcode verifier will be able to make it easy for a company to print and verify the accuracy of the barcodes to be attached to the products created.  This is important to ensure items are sold in stores are the right items.  There are a variety of different barcode verification machines that can be used and many companies choose several to get the job done right. 

In the printing room a stationary barcode with a wide laser field is necessary to read the many codes that are printed at one time using the flexographic printing process.  On down the line another stationary barcode verifier may be used to ensure the right barcodes are being attached to the right products.  Toward the end of the process another affordable barcode verifier may be a mobile unit that can be attached to a laptop computer which can be used to make a final check of the items before shipping.

This three step process makes it much easier for companies to ensure the products they ship out have the right barcodes attached to them.  It’s much less expensive to have the right equipment than to send someone out to check an replace barcodes when they have been printed and shipped incorrectly.  This makes a barcode verifier an important tool in the manufacturing industry to make sales easier.

To know more information about affordable barcode verifier please visit the website.

Easily Rectify Print Defects

If you work in an office and use a printer on a regular basis the correction of a print defect is pretty easy by clearing a print jam or replacing the ink cartridge.  When the printing is done on a much larger scale such as the printing needed for packaging for products that are manufactured and the shipping boxes they will be shipped out in there is much more to finding a print defect and correcting the problem.   In this case manufacturers use special tools such as a print defect detection system to make it easier to find the problem and have it corrected.

In your office a print defect may cost a few pieces of paper and a small amount of time.  On the printing presses of  a manufacturing company these defects could cost thousands of dollars if not detested and corrected quickly.  The use of a print defect detection system helps to ensure these defects can be found quickly and corrected before wasting too much of the valuable ink and products that would be wasted.  Because many print systems us extremely expensive inks and materials, protecting the investment with the lowest waste possible is important to every manufacturing company.

Regardless of the if the defect is found while printing labels for a drink product or the boxes that are needed to ship out the drinks a print defect can cause wasted downtime for the printing presses and slow the entire process down.  The print defect detection system used in a manufacturing plant can inform the team of if the defect was a one-time issue in the product or if it’s a consistent problem in the press which would require the press to be cleaned and parts to be changed out in order to have the printing done correctly.  With these flagging systems companies are able to keep costs down for printing.

To know more information about print defect detection system please visit the website.

A Sneak Peak on Chamber Seals

The flexographic printing process has already become the most desirable way to print the same pattern repeatedly.  This is perfect for making wrapping paper, candy bar wrappers, labels and for printing barcodes.  This process of printing has become much more than just printing on paper though.  Flexographic printing can be used for printing on cardboard for box material, it can be used to print on cellophane to create the wrappers for the food we eat and it’s made to create the packaging material for many of the items we buy at the store.  If you purchase an item that is produces in large quantities its highly likely the packaging was produced using the flexographic printing process.

What does this have to do with chamber seals?

The chambered doctor blade seals are the quiet hero of the flexographic printing process.  This is a process of printing that moves a material to be printed on called the substrate through the doctor chamber across the anilox roller where the plate is placed that carries the impression to be printed.  Inside the chamber ink is infused and metered by one blade while be extracted by the other but if the chamber seals were not in place the ink would escape the chamber and cause an enormous mess.

What materials is chambered doctor blade seals made from?

There is a variety of materials including polyethylene, felt, crosslink materials and neoprene.  These chamber seals are also made in a variety of shapes and sizes in order to handle the job at hand which is to keep the ink from leaving the doctor chamber to become a problem.  It’s important to keep the entire process of the flexographic printing as clean as possible because the set up time is longer than you might expect it to be.  With the right chamber seals in place the presses can continue to operate efficiently much longer than without them.

To know more information about chamber seals please visit the website.

A Brief on Barcode Verifiers

You actually see barcode scanners in your everyday life.  These tools have been developed over time to read the barcode of an item and instantly be able to calculate inventory, price, discounts and any other information associated with the item.  A barcode verifier is used by the manufacturing company to ensure the barcode that is attached to the product is accurate to ensure inventory accuracy.  Finding an affordable barcode verifier is important to a business that produces products that require barcodes.  There are a few different types of verifiers that can be used to ensure barcodes are accurate.

•    Stationary Wide Read – This allows a large number of barcodes to pass through the scanning field to be read.  Typically this barcode verifier would be placed in the print press room to read the barcodes as they come off the line once they are printed.

•    Stationary Narrow Read- This is an affordable barcode verifier that reads one barcode at a time.  Once the barcodes is affixed to the products being produced they can be read by these verifiers to ensure the barcode matches the product its attached to.

•    USB Portable – A barcode verifier that is portable and easily able to be connected to a laptop computer to allow the quality control team the ability to read and verify the barcode accuracy.  This portability makes a huge difference in that final step of verification.

Why do companies go through so much to verify their barcodes?  It’s important to have products sent to the right destination with a barcode attached that is accurate.  This allows for proper inventory controls and verification processes.  Any discrepancy results in a loss for either the selling company or for the manufacturer and often requires additional work to have the barcodes changed to reflect the product accurately.  Because this is a costly venture companies make a concerted effort to be completely accurate.

To know more information about barcode verification please visit the website.

The Latest Trend in Doctor Blades

As we experience advancements in technology of nearly every kind we see a variety of items that change materials and become easier to use. What has been found is we can have items that are infused with others or made entirely from a particular material to bring us some of the easiest to use products in any industry.  This includes the flexographic printing industry with doctor blades that are used to print some of the most dynamic printings we have seen.  Now instead of metals, we see doctor blades for printing that are made from polymers to be easier to use and more effective.

This effectiveness comes from the possibilities with metal blades of them rusting, not being flexible enough or having chips that develop on them.  Even though metal blades typically last longer their ability to be cleaned and reused is much less than polymer blades.  These polymer doctor blades make it easy to see a consistent printing to give you the results you want.  Not only have doctor blades for printing advanced to use polymers, but there are now some blades that are as close to self-cleaning as you can get with the high speed flexographic printing process.

The self-cleaning blades are wrapped and have a collection area for the excess ink to make cleaning of the doctor chamber much faster than ever before.  These latest trends in doctor blades help to give you the best products for the most efficient printing.  Anytime your presses aren’t running you are unable to produce products that make you money, which can be a problem for any company. Using polymer blades or seal wrapped blades you can have the right items to give you fantastic results when your printing is complete.  Let your printing press be one that has all the updated materials and produce the products you need faster than ever.

To know more information about doctor blades for printing please visit the website.