Date: 29-31. March 2011
Place: Versailles, France
Hall: 7.2
Booth: J39
TSC Auto ID Technology EMEA GmbH will showcase the new TTP-225 Series two-inch themal-transfer desktop printer along with the new TTP-268M/366M Series six-inch thermal-transfer industrial printer at the SITL Europe trade show in Paris March 29 - 31. SITL Europe is one of the leading trade fairs focusing on transport and logistics.
The TTP-225 Series, which was launched last November, features a compact, elegant design and plenty of performance for the price. It can print two-inch labels at speeds up to 5 inches per second at 203-dpi resolution, making it faster than many competitive products, yet it is still less expensive. The TTP-225 is the latest addition to TSC’s two-inch label printer line, which also features the TDP-225, a printer targeted at the direct-thermal-printing market.
The TTP-268M Series, which will be available in the first quarter of 2011, handles both direct-thermal and thermal-transfer printing, operating at speeds of up to 8 inches per second at 203-dpi resolution. The maximum print width is 168 millimeters. The TTP-268M comes with a wide choice of interfaces (parallel, RS-232, USB and Ethernet) for easy integration into existing networks.
In addition to the TTP-225 and TTP-268M, TSC EMEA plans to showcase one of the AIDC industry’s most extensive portfolios of thermal-transfer label printers.
"Our wide spectrum of thermal label printers on display will range from very budget-friendly starter products up to high-performance industrial platforms, along with a selection of portable units for mobile label printing," said Michael Sloup, managing director of TSC Auto ID Technology EMEA GmbH. "Because our thermal label printers are among the most reliable and longest-lasting systems in the world, we generally give our customers a two-year warranty on all their purchases."
For a closer look at TSC’s extensive line of label printers, you’re invited to visit the company’s exhibit, located at Hall 7.2, Booth J39.
The pair of Drexel grads who are in large part responsible for the birth of the barcode industry receive recognition for this formidable invention, over half a century later. Bernard Silver and N. Joseph Woodland, inventors of the first optically scanned barcode, are 2011 inductees into the National Inventors Hall of Fame™. 
After an initial attempt consisting of a pair of lines and circles based on Morse Code, the pair's collaboration resulted in the creation of a shape of concentric circles, or what became known as the “bulls eye” symbol, which became the first code to be scanned. Some sources claim that the idea came to Woodland on a Florida beach near his grandfather's apartment, where he lived after quitting his teaching job to work on the barcode project. It is said that while considering the problem, he began to draw lines and dashes in the sand, similar to the Morse Code, then pulling the symbols downward with his fingers, inspired the idea of a 2D Morse Code, which would go on to become the "bulls eye" symbol. In 1951, Silver and Woodland built an actual barcode reader which could read the code electronically. This same year, Woodlands took a job at IBM, in hopes that their idea would be further developed. In October1952, three years after submitting the application, Woodland and Silver received US Patent 2,612,994 ("Classifying Apparatus and Method"). In 1973, 10 years after Silver's death, a rectangular barcode promoted by IBM, after substantial design input by Woodland, was formally adopted as the Universal Product Code (UPC).
Bar code was first used commercially in 1966, however, it was soon realized that there would have to be some sort of industry standard set. By 1970, the Universal Grocery Products Identification Code or UGPIC was written by a company called Logicon Inc. The first company to produce bar code equipment for retail trade use (using UGPIC) was the American company Monarch Marking in 1970, and for industrial use, the British company Plessey Telecommunications was also first in 1970. UGPIC evolved into the U.P.C. symbol set or Universal Product Code, which is still used in the United States. George J. Laurer is considered the inventor of U.P.C. or Uniform Product Code, which was invented in 1973.
