APPLIED IMAGE Establishes Guidance for the Shelf Life of its Conformance Calibration Standard Test Cards for Barcode Verifiers.

How long is my Conformance Calibration Standard Test Card good?

Customers frequently ask how long until they need to replace or recalibrate their Barcode Conformance Calibration Standard Test Card. The historical guidance given to the industry since the inception of these test cards has been to replace them after two years of use. The initiation of the “use” period has been defined as when the seal on the shipping package is opened, either by the verifier manufacturer or the end-user. There is a location on the test card where users can record this date as the “In-Service Date” or “Date Issued. For consistency, we are moving towards the use of the term “IN-SERVICE DATE” on all our products.

The following considerations should be applied:

The product is produced on silver-halide based photographic paper, and the image itself is quite stable. However, in use, there is no assurance that there isn’t dirt or damage adversely impacting the performance of the test card. If there is evidence of any smudging, damage, fading, etc., replace the card.

The end-user’s Quality Management System (QMS) may predetermine the recalibration or replacement frequency for its calibration standards, and it is that QMS that should dictate the related timeframes.

The above notwithstanding, we are restating our guidance relative to the shelf life in consideration of the length of the supply chain before the test card is put into service. Our primary test card standards for UPC/EAN, GS1-128, and ISO/IEC Data Matrix and GS1 DataMatrix symbologies have all been modified with the following statement:


“THIS CALIBRATION STANDARD IS CERTIFIED FOR 2 YEARS FROM THE IN-SERVICE DATE, BUT NO MORE THAN 4 YEARS FROM THE CALIBRATION DATE SHOWN ON THE CALIBRATION CERTIFICATE.”

The test cards listed below will contain this updated statement and become available on a stock turnover basis with the corresponding part numbers:

AI-CCS-UPC/EAN-E REV S
AI-CCS-128-E REV B
AI-CCS-DM-E REV C
AI-CCS-DM-G REV A

These calibration standards are available on our website at https://www.appliedimage.com/product-category/barcode-standards/