You Can't Fix What You Can't See

Continuing the discussion on our new DataMan 50/60 series and why people who use small single line laser scanners should upgrade, I’ll talk about another important image-based barcode reader feature: performance feedback.

In production, rejects occur when a barcode isn’t read (or, even worse, a production line isn’t set up to reject products and a product slips through that hasn’t been scanned). But how do you know why the reject or the no-read occurred if you can’t see it?

Laser scanner technology does not enable you to have any visual reference of the barcodes that are being read. However, image-based readers that work like cameras, take a picture of the barcode. And DataMan readers can be programmed to save images where no reads or rejects occur so you can view them to understand why it happened! What could this mean for you? It means you could fix process errors if they occur, when labels are missing or damaged, for example.

Additionally, DataMan readers allow you to view the images as they are being taken on the barcode reader so you can watch the process live.

In the next blog, we’ll talk about another major technology difference between laser scanners and Cognex barcode readers, solid state design.