NEW EVENT! Cutting-edge Trends for Life Sciences at PACK EXPO Southeast
Discover all the latest packaging solutions for life sciences products at the all-new PACK EXPO Southeast in Atlanta, GA, March 10-12, 2025

How to avoid a big barcode gotcha

With mass-produced packaging, barcodes are preprinted as part of the package artwork. As such, no one has had to really worry about whether those codes will scan throughout the supply chain.

However, because serialized 2D barcodes are coded onto the package, versus preprinted, it opens the door to a phenomenon known as degradation. Depending on your coding technology, the tolerances of the equipment, and the substrate of the package, tiny variances can creep into the code quality such that at the end of a packaging run, the quality may be worse than it was at the beginning. This degradation can be caused by vibration, smearing, particulate buildup, etc.

What’s particularly insidious about this is that today’s vision systems on the actual packaging line are of such high quality, they will read degraded codes that a typical barcode scanner will not. So your code may pass your vision system as readable, but then come July 2016, when wholesalers break open a case of your product and start reading your 2D codes with their scanning guns, you run the very real risk of those packages not being readable.

The risk is that goods with unreadable barcodes may be returned, resulting not only in unnecessary costs, but also in product shortages. 

How to avoid this? That’s where what is known as barcode “grading” comes in. The readability of any barcode can be graded on a scale of 0.0 to 4.0 (F to A). Grades are based on many different parameters, including sharpness of edges, quiet zone, overlap of bars or symbols, relationship of one square to another within a 2D code, etc.

So it is entirely possible for the first package of the run to have a grade B, and the last package to end up with a grade D or below. To pick up these sorts of problems, it is essential to deploy continuous in-line grading, which can be something that the vision system can be programmed to handle, although experts will tell you that offline grading systems provide a more comprehensive review. Barcode grading can be incorporated into the QA sampling process.

INTRODUCING! The Latest Trends for Life Sciences at PACK EXPO Southeast
The exciting new PACK EXPO Southeast 2025 unites all vertical markets in one dynamic hub, generating more innovative answers to packaging challenges for life sciences products. Don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity for your business!
REGISTER FOR $30!
INTRODUCING! The Latest Trends for Life Sciences at PACK EXPO Southeast