As a technology, bar coding is so entrenched in all aspects of everyday commerce and our daily lives that it’s often taken for granted.
The story of its universal success though is a fascinating and lengthy one. The condensed version began in the US in the late 1940s, when the president of a local food chain asked Philadelphia’s Drexel Institute of Technology to research an automatic system for reading product information at checkout.
Drawing a Line in the Sand
Graduate students Bernard Silver and Joe Woodland tackled the project, and it was Woodland who made the initial breakthrough. He believed that the dots and dashes of Morse code would make an ideal model. While relaxing on the beach, he idly drew some dots and dashes in the sand with his fingers. When he elongated these into vertical lines, he realized that he’d had a eureka moment – in effect, the linear binary bar code as we now know it.
Woodland and Silver patented their linear “bar code”, along with a circular version (which they favoured) and a workable reading system in 1952, but it would take years of enormous effort and research from multiple parties and individuals to produce a viable system.
The Wrigley’s “First Scan” Event
All of this work, including the unrelated invention of the laser by 1960, and the development of the linear Universal Product Code (UPC) for groceries in 1973, culminated in the famous “first scan” of a UPC bar code. This was a “10 Pak” of Wrigley’s chewing gum on 26 June 1974 at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, USA – the cashier Sharon Buchanan, the scanner a PSC Magellan (brand names now owned by Datalogic).
Bar Coding Goes Viral
Still, uptake by industry wasn’t as rapid as predicted. It wasn’t until the early to mid 80s that critical mass was achieved in the US grocery market due to bar coding’s (by then) undeniable benefits of increased productivity and accuracy, and savings in time and costs. Bar coding soon spread into other markets along the supply chain including retail in general, logistics, transport and manufacturing, as well as fields undreamt of at first such as healthcare, government, education and defence.
Kemtek Enters the Market
Kemtek, already respected as a major distributor of sophisticated industrial printing technology throughout Southern Africa, entered the bar coding market in 1988.
With this solid foundation in national distribution at scale, Kemtek began forging ties with global bar coding original equipment manufacturers and importing their equipment to supply to resellers nationally.
35 Years and Counting…
2023 marks Kemtek’s 35th year in this fast moving and ever-expanding market. Today, Kemtek’s Auto ID division has strong relationships with and access to all of the world’s leading OEMs, and their products and technologies, proving that commitment, innovation and experience count.
Kemtek’s vast inventory includes bar code scanners and readers, mobile computers, printers and software, as well as other auto ID technologies such as RFID.
Enhanced Value: HP Indigo Digital Presses
Furthermore, Kemtek is sole distributor of HP Indigo digital presses in SA, giving our customers exclusive access to Indigo label presses such as the 6K, 8K and 25K models. These machines deliver premium quality, full colour bar code labels for industries such as wine exporting, with enhancements that include brand protection and embellishment.
Our Bar Coding Expertise: Wrapped in Ribbons
In addition to auto ID products and unmatched expertise and technical support for these, Kemtek operates its own ribbon slitting plant, located in City Deep, Johannesburg.
With a reputation for quality and value, the facility supplies almost every imaginable size and format of thermal transfer ribbon (TTR) required by resellers and B2B customers in South Africa and beyond.
You can find Kemtek’s comprehensive Auto ID inventory, including product overviews and brochures to download here
Designs & Symbologies: Bar Coding 101
Bar code designs and symbologies have grown exponentially since George Laurer’s first UPC 1D code, including 2D and QR codes, though some early 1D codes are still in use.
Kemtek principal, Datalogic, provides a comprehensive and very informative analysis of bar code symbologies – in essence, Bar Coding 101 – that is available here:
Datalogic: The Art of the Code
To learn more about the extensive range of Kemtek Auto ID products and what they can do for your business, contact Gillian Mearns at gillianm@kemtek.co.za or on +27 (0)11 624 8000.
