Create unique serial with ZPL and RFID

Question

How can i create an unique serial for each label. I am creating a RFID Label (96 bits EAN) with the following ZPL Code:

^RB96,8,3,3,24,20,38 ^FD48,1,5,9999999,999999,1^FS

I know you can use ^RU to create a serial from TID, but i can't get this into the label

Answer 1

One way of doing it is; instead of sending 96 bits (24 hex) to program the tag (company prefix + item reference + serial number), just send the portion corresponding to company prefix + Item reference, so you only program say 64 bits and use whatever random bits already come encoded in the tag. Normally the tags com with random numbers from the manufacturer, once in a blue moon could result a duplicate EPC.

Answer 2

Yes, but once in a blue moon is really BAD. It's like duplicating a phone number, vehicle license plate, or zip code - bad, unexpected things result and someone gets in trouble or fined/sued for the damage done. EPCs should NEVER be duplicated, especially if entering a transportation chain. Other large RFID companies have a similar idea that grabbing a certain number of bits from a serialized TID will work (if the inlay you are using has that). But different chip manufacturers independently serialize their TIDs with their own serial number sequence or even the same manufacturer has different models of chips that are independently serialized, so duplicating serial numbers is a matter of when, not if. Best practice is to ensure that any tags you encode have a unique company prefix, asset type (if the encoding supports it), and serial number by controlling the serial number (store and increment it in a database table). We print and encode many millions of RFID tags annually and I can guarantee that every one we encode will be unique forever for our customers.