The barcode is the oldest, cheapest and most universal member of the identification family, and it is the third way Toolminder can identify an asset, alongside RFID and NFC tags. For whole categories of equipment, particularly fixed assets around a building, it is not the budget option: it is the right one.
How a Barcode Actually Works
A barcode is an identifier printed as a pattern. In the classic one dimensional form, a number is encoded as stripes of varying width; in two dimensional forms such as QR codes, the data sits in a grid of squares, which packs in more information and tolerates a degree of surface damage. Either way, the principle is the same: the pattern is read optically, decoded back into the identifier, and that identifier is what Toolminder links to the asset record.
Two properties follow from that, and they define everything about where barcodes fit. First, there is nothing inside the label: no chip, no antenna, nothing to power and nothing to fail electronically. A barcode is exactly as durable as the material it is printed on. Second, reading is optical, so the code needs to be visible and legible: the scanner, which in Toolminder's case is simply the phone's camera, has to be able to see it.
What Barcodes Are Best At
Barcodes shine on assets that are audited and inspected rather than heavily handled: fixed workshop machinery, plant room equipment, ladders and access equipment, racking, and the general population of assets that live indoors and mostly stay put. For this kind of estate the barcode's economics are unbeatable. Labels cost pennies, can be produced in any size from a small panel label to something readable across a room, can be printed on demand as assets are commissioned, and can carry a human readable asset number alongside the code, so the identity is obvious even without a scanner in hand.
The register works the same way whatever the identifier. Walking a building with the app, each camera scan opens that asset's record: its details, documents, inspection history and any checks due, exactly as a tag scan does on a power tool.
Where a Barcode Is the Wrong Tool
A label's weakness is its surface. On kit that is gripped, dragged, rained on, painted over or caked in mud, print takes a beating, and an unreadable barcode is an anonymous asset. Optical reading also needs a clear line of sight, which is a nuisance on equipment that gets scanned many times a day with dirty gloves.
That is the territory where an RFID or NFC tag earns its higher cost: radio needs no line of sight, and a moulded tag shrugs off conditions that would destroy a printed label. Most organisations end up with a mixed estate, and that is the intended pattern: RFID tags on the hard-worked power tools, barcode labels on the fixed and indoor assets, and one system treating every scan identically.
Labels Made In-House
This subject is close to home. Earlsmere began in 1988 as a label and barcode printing company, and nearly four decades later still runs a fully equipped label production facility alongside the Toolminder software: self-adhesive labels in a wide range of sizes and material substrates, supplied on rolls, plain or printed to your requirements, with a digital print service for low-run and multi-colour work.
For assets in demanding spots, the thermal transfer label range is built to withstand heat, chemicals and abrasion, paired with wax, wax-resin or full resin ribbons depending on how hard a life the label will live. The practical upshot for a Toolminder customer is that the asset numbering, the labels it is printed on and the software reading them can all come from the same place, sized and specified for where each label will actually be stuck. Details of the full service are on the Earlsmere labelling page.
Choosing in Practice
A serviceable rule of thumb: if the asset moves, vibrates or gets dirty for a living, tag it; if it stays put and gets audited, label it. Fitting habits are the same as for tags: a clean, dry, flat surface, positioned where the code can be seen and scanned without gymnastics, and a damaged or peeling label reported like any other defect so the asset never loses its identity.
Identification is the front door to everything else Toolminder records. Every feature in detail shows what a scan unlocks once the estate is labelled and tagged.