With all the talk these days about radio frequency identification (RFID), some would think the day of the bar code is over. It's not, and that bodes well for label printers.

In fact, future demand is expected to grow as label printers become more economical, mobile, accurate and smarter.

David Krebs, AIDC Group Manager, at VDC (508-653-9000) predicts that the market for these printing systems will grow from $1.5 billion in 2003 to $2.1 billion in 2007. Printers today range in price from $500 to $5,000, with most of the action in the $1,500 to $2,000 range.

Printers are not only affordable, but are increasingly part of the broader information system rather than being standalone.

'Fifty percent of the printers we sell today have factory-installed Ethernet and WiFi (wireless) connectivity built in,' says Doug Hall, director of printer marketing for Intermec Technologies (800-934-3163).

Innovation doesn't stop there. Printers are now available with online data validation (ODV) technology to automatically scan and verify the accuracy of printed labels. The onboard intelligence and computing power being added to some printers eliminates the need for a separate PC to manage label printing operations.

Meanwhile, several printer manufacturers are preparing for the coming of RFID with printers that will work simultaneously with both traditional labels and RFID tags.

Businesses today must be as flexible as a gymnast to respond to changing products and customer demands. Fortunately, wireless printers that can change along with requirements come in two flavors - table-top and wearable.

Wireless table-top and high-volume printers with WiFi cards allow users to easily move printers on a manufacturing line or in the order fulfillment process of a distribution center without calling in a team of electricians to connect to a network.

'The front office has been networked for years,' says Paul King, labeling systems manager, Weber Marking Systems (847-364-8500). 'Now that's moving to the factory and warehouse floor. Users want to centralize their label design systems but distribute the printing to where the job needs to be done.'

That network connectivity is important for another reason: 'The printers on the floor are now an integral part of the IT system,' says John Paxton, president of Zebra Technologies' bar code business unit (800-423-0422). 'They have to be wireless and interoperable with our end user's business information systems.'

On the other side are wearable printers that use Bluetooth technology to communicate with wireless, mobile scanning devices over short distances.

'Price points have now gotten to the point where even small users can justify portable printing systems,' says Bob Falco, director of the micro printer division, Seiko Instruments USA (310-517-8176).

They can be used inside the four walls of the distribution center (DC) by mobile order pickers or lift truck operators. 'In a warehouse, it's easier to walk around with a wireless device and apply labels as you need them than it is to be tethered to a printer running a batch of labels,' says Falco.

Printing a bad bar code label can shut down a manufacturing line or result in expensive charge backs from customers.

That's why autonomics, also known as online data validation (ODV), is an emerging solution. Printers with ODV capabilities can validate the information being printed onto a label and automatically identify bad bar codes before they're applied to a carton or pallet.

'Autonomics provides you with a self-correcting, closed-loop quality pro-cess that results in 100% scannable bar codes 100% of the time,' says Brad Jarvis, director of product marketing for Printronix (800-826-3874).

An ODV printer scans every label as it is being printed. The system then verifies that the information is correct against an online database.

If a bad bar code is printed, the printer automatically strikes through the label so it can't be used and reprints the right label. 'That eliminates human intervention and provides 100% verification rather than just spot checking,' says Jarvis.

Jarvis estimates that a medium-size distribution center manually handling just 500 bad carton labels a day can justify the cost of a printer with ODV technology.

The traditional label printer must be connected to a PC or a host computer to know what to print. That means extra wiring or an extra box taking up space somewhere.

Smart printers, on the other hand, combine printing capability, a display, and computing power in one box. The result is a machine that not only prints but talks directly to a corporate host computer.

'You not only eliminate a PC,' says Hall of Intermec, 'you now have an intelligent client that can be programmed and integrated with your overall system.'

Equip a smart printer with a general-purpose input/output module, and the printer management software will now work with a programmable logic controller (PLC) to control third-party elements in a materials handling system, for instance.

'I/Os [input/output points] let a user create an integrated print system that's interacting with other devices or sending a signal back to a server to say what is or isn't happening on the line in real time,' says Jarvis of Printronix.

Connectivity also means that performance or repair problems can be diagnosed over the Web. 'With online diagnostics and Web cameras that allow us to see what's going on, we can now help customers with their own repair departments fix a problem over the Web,' says Mark Hansinger, director of marketing, Avery Dennison Printing Systems Americas (800-395-2282).

RFID tags for carton and pallet level tracking may be on the horizon, but the infrastructure to read bar codes isn't going away soon. Most users will continue to use bar code labels for years to come while slowly introducing RFID tags into their operations.

The result: label printers that can print bar code information, human readable information, and write information to an RFID tag on the same machine.

The printers utilize label stock that is blank on one side for traditional bar code labeling. RFID tags are affixed to the other side.

As the label stock runs through the printer, a bar code is printed. Meanwhile, an RFID read/write device integrated into the printer electronically writes the same production information to the RFID tag. Applied to a carton or pallet, the resulting tag can work with a bar code scanning device, an RFID reader, or both.

While the technology to print bar codes embedded with RFID tags is available from the major printer manufacturers, demand has yet to catch up with the technology.

'There's a lot of talk about RFID in the market,' says Hansinger. 'But for now, there's not a lot of steam behind the initiatives.'

One reason is that, as with other areas of RFID, standards still have to be worked out.

'There is no question that RFID is coming, and that printers will be a part of the solution,' says Hall of Intermec. 'But right now, there are more questions than answers.'

Click on the icon to read how Jeep uses bar code labels to deliver parts in sequence to the assembly line.