SATO, a supplier of systems for automatic identification and data capture, has released new firmware for its CL4 series of industrial printers for printing smart labels with passive RFID tags.

The updated printer feature supports the automatic issuing of serial numbers, which can be written to the chips in addition to Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), enabling businesses to reduce costs and operate more efficiently.

Having access to detailed product information enables greater visibility of product chain – across many sectors including retail, garment and industrial production environments – in case of complaints in order to optimize processes and to protect against counterfeits.

With the new CL4 firmware, companies can automatically issue serialized numbers, administer them and write them to RFID chips. This saves users time and money and gives them the benefit of significantly better data transparency. Duplicates are impossible with this method and this is especially advantageous for companies that operate several production facilities worldwide.

The CL4 series with the new firmware currently supports the following RFID chip types: Impinj Monza 4 and 5, Alien Higgs 3 and 4, and NXP G2iL.