Pharmaceutical Packaging Serialization: Evaluating Coder Technologies To Print High-Quality Alphanumeric And DataMatrix Codes

Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences/Healthcare packaging operations are held to demanding internal standards and healthcare industry requirements. These standards promise to grow in complexity as (1) packaging operations serve an increasingly global customer base, and (2) serialization requirements continue to be deployed across a number of countries. Life Sciences packaging needs have driven innovation in the coding and marking industry in the recent past and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Over the last decade, real needs related to high resolution printing, serialization and printer cleanliness have fueled continued development of existing printing equipment and the introduction of new print technologies.

Packaging engineers and managers now have several printing technologies to choose from to meet their needs. Improperly applied, the coder selection can be a source of frustration that can drag down the speed and productivity of packaging operations. Properly specified and selected, the coder can and should be an important, yet unobtrusive, element within packaging line operations. With increasing frequency, packaging leaders are being asked to specify between the two most common print technologies for serialized marking: laser and thermal ink jet (TIJ).