Professional Engraving Systems

How to Engrave Barcodes - by Jimmy DuBose

Why should I engrave Barcodes? Who are some of the potential customers for this product?

The engraving system that you have in your shop is a profit center. Finished product easily translates into profit. Barcode tags can be easily created with your existing equipment, so why not add this type of tag to your product line? Any company that needs to track inventory or equipment has a need for these tags and chances are some of your current customers are looking elsewhere for providers .

Can I engrave Barcodes with my rotary and laser systems?
Barcode tags can be created on both your rotary and laser systems. On a rotary system, these are commonly created on micro-thin surface plastics like Rowmark’®s LaserMax™ white with black core. Laser systems can create Barcode tags out of the same plastic, but they can also create Barcodes on anodized aluminum and Thermark™ coated metals.

Keep in mind that Barcode scanners need contrast between the material surface and the engraving in order to discern the mark from the host material. The engraved Barcode must be darker than the material surface.

The stroke (width) of each line in the Barcode and the spacing between each line must be exact as per the code type specification for the scanner to accurately read the supplied data.

Types of Barcodes and limitations
Barcode 39 font is included with the Xenetech Graphic Workstation software through a supplied font. This font can be used on both the rotary and laser systems. Since the stroke values of other Barcode specifications may vary, they are not easily generated on rotary systems due width of the cutter needed to generate the Barcode lines.

The size and stroke of the lines still must be precise for the laser, but the laser can more easily replicate multiple line thicknesses.

Individual Barcodes also have inherent limitations. For example, in Barcode 39 only upper case characters and numbers are available, with no option for spaces or other characters. Barcode 39 is also limited to the number of characters per line. Eventually, the line becomes too wide for the scanner to read completely.

Barcode 128 and the UPC Barcodes have similar limitations.

Data matrix Barcodes are a newer code standard, capable of combining more data and extended character sets. The encoded image grows in multiple dimensions as more data is added to it Therefore, they can be produced only on laser systems. These Barcodes are generated by special software that encrypts up to 256 characters into a small square matrix of dots or pixels. Because of this encryption capability, the U.S. military has adopted this form of marking to track large items.

How to engrave Barcode 39 on rotary engravers

The Barcode 39 font was designed at a .25” scale. This means that if you use a letter height of .25” the aspect ratio of the line of text will need to be 100%. Remember, aspect ratio is the ratio of an object's width to its height. As you increase the letter height, the width of the line will remain the same and therefore the aspect ratio will decrease. For example, a letter height of .5” will have an aspect ratio of 50%, and a letter height of 1” will have an aspect ratio of .25.

The Barcode 39 font includes numbers and upper case characters only. Barcode 39 also needs a beginning and ending line designator. This designator is the asterisk, *. You would type in the following text in the Bar39.fnt: *ABC123*

Finally, you must use a sharp .015” tip cutter when engraving the Barcode. Lines that are too thick or thin will not be read by the scanner. The material used for engraving Barcode tags should be white, micro-thin surface material with a black core. A micro-thin surface material typically has a surface thickness of .003”. Thicker surface materials will not scan properly.

How to engrave Barcode 39 on laser engravers

Barcode 39 can be laser engraved directly from the Xenetech software by following the steps above for setup. You need to make sure that Normal line is selected in the Line/Group menu. Laserable plastic with a white surface and black core is recommended for this application, but black anodized aluminum can also be used for Barcode tags. If you laser Barcode tags on black anodized aluminum, the output will need to be inverted. This can be done upon output by selecting “Laser Routes Background on Raster Images” in the Engraver setup. The second option would be to change the color of the Barcode to white and place it on the top of a black box in the XGW software. Other Barcodes will need specialized software programs to generate the Barcode. Most of the time the finished Barcode can be printed directly to our laser through our laser print driver. Another option would be to output the Barcode to a Windows bitmap and import the bitmap into XGW or CorelDraw for output. Barcodes can also be laser engraved on steel and other metals by using the CerMark™ paste.

Data matrix Barcodes need a very small spot size for accurate scanning. We recommend using a 1.5” lens to get an acceptable result.

How can I test my Barcode engraving? Get a scanner.
I recommend the purchase of a Barcode scanner to test the quality of your tags. You can purchase a scanner that can read most basic Barcodes from a variety of retail and Internet computer suppliers. Often the scanner comes with Barcode labeling software that can also be used to print different types of Barcodes.

Conclusion
Creating Barcodes can be easily accomplished with your existing Xenetech Engraving system. With only the addition of a Barcode scanner and some engraving stock, you can add this type of signage to your product line thus allowing Barcode tag customers to also come to you for all types of engraved signage.