Packaging

Products must be prepared for shipping and then transported to customers. Industrial materials are usually shipped to other manufacturers without being individually packaged. Most consumer products are packaged. What is the purpose of packaging? It must protect the product. It should also attract attention on a store shelf. Have you ever seen packaging that makes you want to buy a product? If so, the packaging department has done its job.

UPC and RFID. Have you ever looked at a packaged product and wondered what those white and black parallel bars were for? That is a universal product code, or a UPC. It is often called a bar code, and it contains information about the product and its manufacturer.

Universal product codes help out in both the distribution and sales of a product. For example, UPCs are used for inventory purposes. A manufacturer or seller has equipment that can read the code. Each item that leaves the factory or store is scanned. The information is sent to a computer system that tracks how many products are in stock. When supplies run low, more products are ordered or manufactured. You have probably been to many stores in which items were scanned at the checkout lane. You were part of the stores' inventory process.

Radio Frequency Identification Devices ("RFID" tags) are used to track products or their containers, pallets that hold products, and the trucks and trailers that transport products. For example, when a vehicle needs to be located, a transceiver transmits radio signals to locate the transponder. Since products may be moved in warehouses all the time, an RFID is a good way to find what you need quickly. You have probably seen RFIDs on consumer products such as CDs.

RFIDs consist of a computer chip attached to a loop of wire and encased in a plastic film. When they pass through a magnetic field, an electrical current is generated in the wire that powers the chip to transmit its identity and potentially other information to an antenna. Tags can have data written to them that can be read and amended by the antennas. Unlike a barcode, which can only be scanned by a reader pointing directly at it, any antenna within range can read an RFID tag. In this way, hundreds of tags can be read every second, unlike barcodes that must be read one-at-a-time. This is the key benefit of RFID in relation to multi-item processing applications.

If you live near a toll road, many prepaid passes are basically RFID tags you attach to your windshield. As you pass by the toll booth, the RFID tag is read and the proper amount of toll is deducted from your account. All without stopping your car.