Operating costs can be roughly categorised as software, hardware and media. This pages deals with hardware costs, comprised mainly of printers for making barcoded labels, and scanners for reading barcodes.
The cost of hardware will depend on a number of factors:
For a variety of reasons we recommend weatherproof labels with plastic thermal transfer printing, rather than adhesive paper or card labels using a direct thermal transfer process. Our standard label formats are 4" x 6" to accomodate most of the key information your customers will want in barcode as well as printed form. You could get by with smaller labels carrying only a 7-digit serial number and supporting data in character form. This might allow you to use a cheaper printer, and would reduce your media costs at the expense of having a less standard looking label that may not meet your compliance needs.
Our bar code label formats are built using ZPL, a programming language specific to Zebra printers. We also work with Monarch (MPL) and Eltron (EPL, a Zebra subsidiary) and could adapt the formats to other languages.
The printer required may be a smaller desktop printer such as the Zebra TLP-2844Z, or a full size printer such as the Zebra S600 or 105SL. Since the media costs are comparatively high for the smaller printer, and the 105SL is designed for an industrial environment, we recommend the latter despite the higher initial capital cost.
Find out about printers from Zebra themselves or any number of online internet stores handling Zebra equipment and supplies. A typical price can be found here. We do not endorse this supplier or recommend them over any other, but are simply using this link to give an indication of current pricing without having to maintain a price ourselves on this page.
Used prices are typically half to one quarter of the new price depending on condition. Used printers are commonly available on eBay but they can be heavy beasts, so watch out for the shipping costs, and don't forget about duties and brokerage fees if you are buying internationally. Beware of worn thermal printheads on used printers. If you wish, we can sell you a new or used printer, but we would prefer you to use a local supplier who can support you.
Many models of scanner will serve your purpose. You should choose a laser scanner which can read from a reasonable distance, rather than a contact or near-contact CCD scanner. There are essentially six varieties,
Here are a few pointers on scanner selection:
Typical prices can be found here. We do not endorse this supplier or recommend them over any other, but are simply using this link to give an indication of current pricing without having to maintain prices ourselves on this page.
Used scanners are typically less than $50 and are readily available on eBay, provided you know what you are buying. If you wish, we can sell you a new or used scanner, though a local supplier may be a wiser choice.
We recommend Zebra as having relatively low cost, robust industrial quality printers suited to a steel manufacturing environment. We have customers who have used them satisfactorily for years for fairly high volume barcode printing.
We suggest the Zebra 105SL as a reasonably priced printer capable of maintaining a decent throughput without burning out the thermal printhead. It will print using a plastic ribbon for UV resistance onto coated weather resistant labels, so that inventory stored outdoors will not have tags affected by sunlight or severe conditions. The Zebra TLP-2844Z printer will do the same job and cost less, but because the media (ribbons and labels) are in smaller batch sizes and more expensive, and its duty cycle is shorter, you are likely to find the 105SL a much better choice.
Your printer must connect to your network. If it does not have a network interface then you will need a print server for it. A print server is a device about the size of a paperback novel that is used to connect a parallel or USB printer to a network. It can be wired or wireless.
For media, the Transmatte 2000 4" x 6" is a good, coated label suited to our formats, and you will need a 4.33" wide ribbon (with 1" core for the 105SL) to go with them. Labels and ribbons are sold by the case - large, heavy and expensive for labels, just expensive for the ribbons.
You will need something to print on, and we recoomend tags rather than labels, coated for weather resistance, and printed using direct thermal transfer.
The Transmatte 2000 4" x 6" is a good, coated label suited to our formats, and you will need a 4.33" wide ribbon (with 1" core for the 105SL) to go with them. Labels and ribbons are sold by the case - large, heavy and expensive for labels, just expensive for the ribbons.
Many models of scanner will serve your purpose. We recommend a trigger operated handheld laser scanner with keyboard wedge connection. It is simple to connect, needs no special software, is simple to operate, and can read barcodes from a decent distance.
For information on scanners you could look on the Symbol web site. Symbol (now owned by Motorola) make good quality, relatively inexpensive, well supported scanners with a decent range of features. We have been generally happy with them in every situation where we have used or recommended them. That is not to say that other makes of scanner with similar features to those mentioned above would not do just as good a job, or perhaps better.
To use a laser scanner to read bar coding in the body of the tag (as opposed to the serial numbers on the leading and trailing ends, which are what you will normally need to read), you need to know the right technique.