Idenfiering av rör, vialer, reagenser och microtiterplattor är av stor betydelse i många laboratorier därför använder vi oss av teknikledande streckkodsläsare för att skapa driftsäkra system..

Vi testar kontinuerligt olika streckkodsläsare för att kunna erbjuda den senaste tekniken och de mest driftsäkra streckkodsläsarna på marknaden. De streckkoder vi kommer i kontakt med är ibland av dålig kvalitet. Blöta etiketter, där strecken är utsmetade, det ställer stora krav på streckkodsläsaren.

Vi kan utföra automatisk streckkodshantering på flera olika sätt, dels genom att använda den integrerade robotarmen med "fingrar" för att hantera rör, vialer och plattor. Men också via små automater som tar hand om rören innan pipettering sker. Avläst resultat kan jämföras mot t.ex. arbetslistor från LIMS för att säkerställa att rätt analys och metod körs för respektive rör/streckkod. Klicka på denna länk för att se fler filmer

Hantering av rör med gripdon. Rören flyttas ett och ett till läsaren och roteras framför läsaren så att streckkoder som sitter horisontellt på klistrat på röret kan läsas av. Denna procedur tar ~20 sekunder per rör men är säker efterom ingen kan flytta på rören i racket mellan avläsning och pipettering. denna typ av fingar medger att man t.ex. utför av/på korkning

Batch avläsning med vår streckkodsautomat, den kan läsa både vertikal och horisontell 1D och 2D streckkod tack vare den CCD baserad laserläsaren.

Why use barcodes?
Barcodes offer guaranteed sample identification. When the commercial value of each microplate that is analysed is considered, the cost of a barcode reader to guarantee the correct results are recorded against a sample is a small price to pay. I would recommend the following web pages for more information www.bambooweb.com & www.barcodeisland.com.

What types of barcode reader are there ?
There are 3 technologies. CCD, laser and omni scan.

CCD
is the cheaper technology; some people are really impressed by their performance, our impression is they are good as handhelds but not so good in an automated workcell.

Laserscan
Is a single bar of red laser light. These are best suited to a read where the plate is in a guaranteed orientation, we use them in stackers mainly.

Omniscan
is a star of laser light. We use these extensively, we have found them reliable for automated workcells and the robot does not have to stop to make the barcode read.

Barcode character sets
Linear barcodes are a series of black and white lines in a linear pattern. The different patterns are indicative of the information that is represented and usually has a human readable information strip under the linear pattern. Different patterns (or symbologies) can represent the digits 0-9 only or the complete alphanumeric sequence available on a PC, i.e. ASCII 0-255. The more data that each character has to hold, the wider the actual barcode is to represent the data.

What does the pattern mean ?
Each character is represented by a series of bars, separated by a blank space (the intercharacter space), there is a start character and a stop character (so the barcode reader know from which end to start) and a quiet zone at each end. Failure to read a barcode can sometimes be caused by the barcode extending to the edge of the label, and the edge of the label looks like a fine bar under certain lighting conditions, confusing the barcode reader with an unexpected bar.

Barcoding terms
Discrete Symbology
is where all characters are encoded in the symbol may be interpreted individually without respect to the rest of the barcode. Such symbologies have characters that both start and end with a bar. Individual characters are separated by some amount of inter-character spacing. The intercharacter spacing carries no information other than to separate the characters.

Continuous Symbology
is one in which the individual characters of the symbology cannot be interpreted by themselves. This is because the characters start with a bar and end with a space. The final space is "terminated" by the starting bar of the next character. A character cannot be taken individually as there is no way to know how wide the last space is without knowing where the next character begins. Continuous symbologies normally implement some kind of special termination bar or termination sequence such that the termination bar terminatesthe last space of the last data character.

Two-Width Symbology
has spaces and bars that are either wide or narrow. This has the benefit of simplicity-once it is determine how wide a "narrow" bar or space is, anything over a certain width can be considered "wide." This allows for a large level of print tolerance in lower-quality printing conditions.

Multiple-Width symbology
is where the bars and spaces that may be of 3 or more widths. The narrowest bar or space may be X in width, a medium-width space or bar may be 2X in width, and a wide bar may be 3X in width. Since there are more possible combinations available in a multiple-width symbology, data encoding is often more efficient and results in a tighter barcode. Multiple-width symbologies are usually continuous symbologies.Fixed-Length Symbology is where an exact number of characters or digits are encoded. For example, a UPC-A barcode always encodes 12 digits of data. An application may not encode less or more than the pre-defined fixed-length of 12 characters. The symbology itself defines the length of data.

Variable-Length Symbology
is where the code can carry a message of any length. For example, Code 128 may encode any number of characters that can reasonably fit physically in the printed barcode. The symbology itself does not define how many characters of data must be encoded.

Self-Checking Symbology
is where a single printing or scanning error will not cause one of the component characters to be converted erroneously into another valid character.Bibliography Full glossary of terms:
http://www.tharo.com/glossary.htm.

Specification organisations:
http://www.tharo.com/barinfo.htm.

Warehouse terms:
http://www.dataid.com/wrhseglossery.htm.

Printing Barcodes
Paper
You can print a barcode on anything, but you can’t necessarily read it afterwards ! The better the quality the paper, the better the ad likelihood. The best label stock for laboratories is polyester.

Printers
There are several types: Dot matrix, I would forget this option; Laser printer, generally good quality but not very laboratory proof; thermal transfer printer, specialist printers that emboss a layer of carbon from a ribbon on the label, these are the best.

Software
There are fonts that you can print from Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word, there are specialist packages that you can purchase that allow control of all the facilities on a sophisticated barcode printer. The choice is down to what quality of printout you require, what information you want on the label and how long/what atmospheric conditions the label has to survive. The costs go from freeware to many hundreds of £/$.

Barcode types There are over 30 different barcode formats. These have names like: Code 39, Extended Code 39, Code 128 (with haracter set selections Auto, A, B and C), UCC/EAN-128, USS-128, Interleaved 2 of 5, Codabar, UPC-A, UPC-E, MSI, EAN-8, EAN-13, Code 11, Code 93, Industrial 2 of 5, PLANET and POSTNET. The following information is abridged from

www.barcodeisland.com

www.barcodefaq.com