ISO/TR 17350:2013 プラスチック製のリターナブル輸送アイテム（RTI）への直接マーキング | ページ 2

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

International Standards are drafted in accordance with the rules given in the ISO/IEC Directives, 2.

The main task of technical committees is to prepare International Standards. Draft International Standards adopted by the technical committees are circulated to the member bodies for voting. Publication as an International Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the member bodies casting a vote. Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

In exceptional circumstances, when the technical committee has collected data of a different kind from that which is normally published as an International Standard (“state of the art”, for example), it may decide to publish a Technical Report. A Technical Report is entirely informative in nature and shall be subject to review every five years in the same manner as an International Standard.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

ISO/TR 17350 was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 122, Packaging.

Introduction

The typical returnable transport item (RTI) used in physical distribution is a pallet. In the logistics industry, however, carton boxes, which are normally loaded on a pallet and tightly bound with a rope or net, are traditionally used. For environmental reasons, in recent years, these carton boxes are being replaced by plastic RTIs (returnable box). This is a growing trend, especially in the manufacturing industry, where RTIs are regarded as an important delivery means in the transportation between production sites and where RTIs are implemented for carrying items from the distribution centre to the retailer.

However, the lack of a well-established structure to control RTIs (owner management) has created problems resulting in uncontrolled, discarded, lost or stolen RTIs. Generally, in supply chain management, an RTI filled with items is exchanged among the trading partners in the conventional forward logistics and the same RTI is emptied and collected for reuse in the reverse logistics (return process). Because no efficient RTI management system currently exists, collection of RTIs has not been successful and this is adversely affecting the efficiency of the overall shipping process. An ideal solution would be the use of an identification code to uniquely identify individual RTIs.

Data carriers for this potential management system could include OCR, linear symbols, two-dimensional symbols or RFID. The use of an OCR-based reader is not recommended because of its cost and linear symbols are not practical for storing a large amount of data. Taking these factors into consideration, a 2D symbol may be a reasonable choice for marking RTIs.

Two methods are available for applying 2D symbols on RTIs; labelling and direct marking. Most labels are accompanied by the risk of peeling off during a long cycle of reuse, but using a highly durable label that resists peeling comes at a higher cost. For that reason, this technical report proposes marking 2D symbols directly on the RTIs. And because a variety of colours are used for RTIs and achieving a 100 % read rate for some colours is nearly impossible, this technical report is intended to provide guidance to determine the most appropriate marking and reading method for resin-made RTIs.

This Technical Report contains 15 annexes, all of which provide informative information:

Annex A — Example of serial numbers (SNs)

Annex B — Example of structured data

Annex C — Specification of hand-held scanner

Annex D — Specification of hand-held terminal

Annex E — Specification of fixed scanner

Annex F — Specification of LED light for fixed scanner

Annex G — Specification of verifier

Annex H — Specification of LED light for verifier

Annex I — Specification of FAYb laser

Annex J — Specification of CO2 laser

Annex K — Specification of dot peen maker

Annex L — Types of LED light

Annex M — Evaluation results on samples A

Annex N — Evaluation results on samples B

Annex O — Evaluation results on samples C

1 Scope

This Technical Report provides guidance on

• Returnable transport items (RTIs)
• Identification codes used for RTIs
• Specifications for two-dimensional symbols
• Method for direct marking
• Reading method for direct marking

2 Normative references

The following documents, in whole or in part, are normatively referenced in this document and are indispensable for its application. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.

3 Terms, definitions and abbreviations

For the purposes of this document, the terms, definitions, and abbreviations given in ISO/IEC 19762 (all parts), ISO 445 and ISO 21067 apply.

Bibliography