Print and encode. In one action.
An RFID printer prints the label and writes the number into the chip at the same time. What comes out is a label that is readable for a person and for a reader, without a second step in between where something can go wrong.
First pick the label, then the printer that can handle that label.
What to look at when you choose
The first question is not which printer, but whether you should be printing at all.
- Print yourself or buy in
- Fixed volumes per year you buy pre-encoded; changing volumes you print yourself
- How many per day
- A few dozen asks something different than a production line that keeps running
- Where it stands
- Office, workbench or production hall. That decides the housing and the maintenance
- Which label
- The printer has to handle the label type you picked, and not the other way around
Ribbon and label roll
What goes in decides what comes out
The ribbon and the label roll sit next to each other in the printer, and the chip is in the label itself. So when you load it you already decide whether you get a label that works on cardboard or one that stands up to metal and damp. A printer that cannot handle the label type still prints it but does not encode it reliably, and you only notice that at the first read.
Operating it on the floor
The device says what is wrong itself
A printer standing still costs time because nobody knows why. The screen shows the message and the action that goes with it, with no manual needed. That is exactly what you want in a place where the people working with it are not printer administrators.
What printing yourself does and does not give you
Wel
- Make labels at the moment you need them
- Record the number and the printed text in one action
- Check straight away that the chip is written before the label comes off
- Handle changing volumes without holding stock
Niet
- Be cheaper than buying in at large, fixed volumes
- Handle every label type: that differs per model
- Run without maintenance in a dusty environment
- Make the choice of the label unnecessary
The order matters here: first pick the label that works on your material, then the printer that can handle that label. The other way around you are stuck with whatever the printer happens to support, and that is exactly the limit you do not want.