Multiple Code Reading Applications Made Easy

Reading more than one barcode at a time is a challenging application for many manufacturing and material handling engineers. In these applications there is a need to read multiple codes of the same symbology as well as multiple codes of mixed symbologies within one field of view (FOV). Even more difficult is reading one or more codes on multiple sides of a package to verify that the codes match or to output both sides’ read results as one piece of data. Laser scanners have difficulty reading codes that are poorly printed, damaged or defective, are at extreme perspectives and that are omnidirectional. They cannot manage when variations occur in part and package positioning. And they cannot read 2-D codes at all, which means that they have no way to compete in two of the four types of multiple code reading applications we commonly see.

Image-based code reading technology can handle much more variation in barcode printing than traditional laser scanners and can also read codes presented at any angle or omnidirectionally. Additionally, the life of an image-based scanner, with no moving parts, is longer and more reliable than a mechanical based laser scanner.

With this information, image-based barcode reading solutions make a great replacement for laser scanners even when reading single barcodes and are especially exceptional with multiple barcodes of the same or different symbology types.