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Inverhuron Business Information Services Inc

Track Heat

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Barcoded Tags

Tags are produced by our system on the basis of individual format files, with separate formats for

  • master coils (generally 1-2m wide, with irregular edges as supplied by the original manufacturer)
  • slit coils (narrower coils of uniform width and straight edges cut from a master coil)
  • bundles of tubing, angles, bars and other items with a variable length
  • bundles of sheet and other items of variable width and length
  • bundles or containers of items of uniform design such as stampings
You can have each type of tag individually customised to your own size and content requirements if necessary.

Track Heat Tags

Track Heat natively uses a 4" x 6" format, with a 1" tear-off at the bottom and a central hole at the top. The label definition is for ZPL printers so it is relatively simple alter content and change it to some other size. It would not entail a great deal of effor to adapt the standard formats for other formatting languages such as EPL or MCL.

Altering a format file can be done with a simple text editor and is relatively uncomplicated. We are not averse to the idea of expanding the capabilities of the application to accomodate a new language or format. Clients are welcome to offer suggestions or requests, however any decision to implement a new language or format is ours alone.

Preprinted information on the back of the label can be used for advertising, company contact information, and country of origin. The hole punch is for a wire or plastic tie and should be located well away from the edge to reduce the risk of it pulling off. The tear off is mainly for shipping, allowing you to remove a serial number for processing in the office, while leaving the main tag in place for your customer. You can get away with using a plain label by equipping your inventory people with a hole punch, and your shippers with a pair of scissors to cut (rather than tear) off the bottom strip of the label.

Choosing Media

Barcodes can be produced on just about anything - plain paper, plastic, cardboard, sticky labels. You can even print barcodes on fruit using a laser.

For steel roll processing we recommend coated tags printed using a direct thermal transfer process. Steel is often stored outdoors. Even under cover it may be exposed to UV radiation from the sun, and when it gets shipped it will probably get some sun and weather.

Sun and rain tend to make a mess of paper, cardboard and labels. Thermal print labels are not UV resistant, and will fade over time. Fading will even occur indoors protected by solid walls or by glass that filters out most UV, because heat and time will fade thermal labels. Unless you protect uncoated paper with a plastic bag, it can easily get wet and turn to useless, unreadable mush. For these reasons we recommend coated, thermal transfer tags suited to our formats. (The sticky ones are labels, and their adhesive can be an inconvenience)

Coated tags are unaffected by moisture, and the thermal transfer process that literally melts plastic onto the tag to make the bar codes and printing produces a result that is unaffected by UV, temperature, rain or snow. Coated tags are durable, last for years, and are unlikely to tear off if properly attached, even in strong winds.

Coil Tag Sample
Coil Tag Sample
(click to enlarge)
Bundle Tag Sample
Bundle Tag Sample

The samples shown here have been scanned and reduced in definition to consume minimal bandwith for display purposes.

We also have a higher resolution sample that is 2MB in size and will take much longer to load.

The best of these is only a 300 dpi scan, yet only a bit more than half a tag width will show on an 800x600 SVGA screen, or 3/4 of a tag width on a 1024x768 XGA screen. The width of one tag should fill most of a 1400 pixel wide screen. If not, your browser is displaying it at a reduced resolution, so use your browser controls to enlarge the image to full size.

These are reasonably fair representations, but do not quite do full justice to the quality of the printer or to the appearance of the actual tag.

Information on labels can be found on the Zebra web site where you can also find out about ribbons. We do not recommend adhesive labels, but prefer the type of tag you can attach to your inventory using a wire or plastic tie, and which will not contaminate surfaces with adhesive or be difficult to remove.

Zip Zebra is a sort of one stop shop for tags, labels and accessories for Zebra printers. It is worth a look if only for competitive pricing.