Industrial UHF RFID Printer and Encoder iX4R (4-Inch)

What the iX4R industrial RFID printer is built for

The iX4R is an industrial label printer with a UHF RFID encoder built in. Each label is printed and its RFID chip encoded in a single pass, so carton labels, hang tags or asset tags come off the printer ready to read, with no separate encoding step. It is meant for sites that produce RFID labels in volume every day: warehouses, retail distribution centres and manufacturing lines.

Print and encode specifications

Print speed is up to 14 inches per second over a 104 mm (4-inch) print width, the common width for carton and shipping labels. It prints at 203 dpi or 300 dpi: 203 dpi is enough for most carton labels and barcodes, while 300 dpi gives cleaner small text and compact barcodes on small tags, so tell us which you need when you ask for a quote.

The encoder covers 860–960 MHz EPC Gen 2, which includes the 865–868 MHz band used for UHF RFID in India, so it can encode the standard UHF labels used in domestic supply chains and in export shipments.

Built for production use

• Touch-screen control: a 3.5-inch colour LCD touch screen for settings and status at the printer.
• Automatic calibration: detects label length and gap, cutting setup time when you switch label sizes.
• Connectivity: USB, RS-232, RJ45 Ethernet and Wi-Fi, so it can sit on the plant network, connect to an older system over serial, or run from a single PC.

Where it is used

• Warehouse: RFID carton labels printed at goods-in or despatch
• Retail: encoded hang tags printed at the distribution centre before goods go to stores
• Manufacturing: work-in-progress traveller tags that follow a job through the line
• Asset management: asset tags printed and encoded on demand

iX4R or a desktop printer?

For occasional runs, such as tagging an office for an asset audit, the IT4RL desktop RFID printer is usually enough. Choose the iX4R when printing runs through the shift and speed, print width and network connectivity matter. The RFID printer price guide covers desktop and industrial printer costs, and the full range is under RFID printers.