Techonology Innovations
Is Your Company Ready to Automate Its RFID Labeling?
Over the past year, the industry has seen significant advances in RFID printing technology. For companies that ship and track large quantities of product, high-speed, automated labeling is a must. If you are considering implementing an automated RFID solution, Printronix offers you the key questions that will help you decide.
What are my projected case volumes this year? — The number of cases to label per week or per month should have a significant impact on the decision to automate.
What's my typical application? — Your application methods will vary, and they will change with production requirements. For example, label registration tolerances for RF-hostile products may require tamp-blow application to ensure proper tag placement. A tag has to be positioned in an air pocket between cylinders of liquid, on a contoured surface, such as shrink wrap.
Will there be cross-docking requirements? — If you have cross-docking requirements, you may not have time to de-palletize, tag and re-palletize.
What are my conveyor or production line speeds? — An applicator is faster and more repeatable in its label placement accuracy.
What size label will I be using? — This question affects the process because different size labels require different placement and handling techniques.
How can I manage tag quality? — Unfortunately, converters can't guarantee 100 percent good tags. An applicator must have a way to handle rejects, dispense the bad tags and make a duplicate tag. The best approach is to spot defective tags before they are separated from the carrier line and leave them to accumulate on the take-up reel. Plus, this makes it easier to account for defective labels and address yield issues with the converter.
What are my lead times? — Time-sensitive products, like fresh produce, may require users to apply tags within a narrow window of time. In such cases, you may need to automate to satisfy delivery requirements.
Can I protect the process? — Did you know that a typical warehouse operation can generate between 8 and 15 kilovolts of electrical discharge? It takes as little as 500 volts to damage a chip! Before automating, you must include proper grounding of equipment.
Encoding speed is crucial as RFID adopters take the next step in implementing the technology. To meet the tracking and shipping needs in manufacturing, companies must have the capability to encode, print and verify RFID and bar code labels at high speeds, the Printronix SLPA8000r MP2 answers this call by encoding, printing and applying tags in excess of 100 cases per minute.
In addition, users now have more flexibility and enhanced asset protection. Whether they require an automated slap-and-ship system or an in-line production printer applicator to integrate into their manufacturing process, field upgradeability features allow organizations to deploy a model that prints bar code labels only now and upgrade easily to RFID printing later.
If your company is ready to automate its RFID labeling, learn more about the SLPA8000r MP2 today.
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