Unlike other stand-alone symbologies such as the U.P.C. barcode, Composite Component® is a two-dimensional symbol designed to be used with other GS1 System symbols. Composite Component is not designed to carry GS1 System identification numbers (these would be carried by the host linear symbol). The Composite Component can carry all other Application Identifiers. Composite Components can carry item attribute data in a confined space.
Technical specifications for Composite Component (CC) are available at: http://www.aimglobal.org/aimstore/
There are three members of the Composite Component family:
- Composite Component A (CC-A)
- Composite Component B (CC-B)
- Composite Component C (CC-C)
They are chiefly distinguished by their capacity to encode data. Each of these must be combined with GS1 linear symbols that encode GS1 System identification numbers.
Composite Component is a stacked linear barcode. It is bi-directionally decodable and can be read by laser scanners. It doesn't require the use of imaging scanner technology. Composite Component barcodes have a binary-based encoding scheme optimized for GS1 Application Identifier Element Strings. Special compaction methods have been designed to decrease the symbol size for commonly used Element Strings such as lot number and expiration date.
All Composite symbols, except EAN/UPC composites, encode a linkage flag in both the linear component and the 2-dimensional Composite Component to tell the scanner to continue scanning for the other component. Scanners that read EAN/UPC Composite Symbols need to be set up to look for both the linear and 2D components.
Composite Component A (CC-A)
CC-A can encode up to 56 digits of alphanumeric data. CC-A can be combined with any of the GS1 System symbols except for ITF-14. This code is based on MicroPDF417.
Composite Component B (CC-B)
CC-B can encode up to 338 digits of alphanumeric data. CC-B can be combined with any of the GS1 System symbols except for ITF-14. This code is based on MicroPDF417. It is only used if the data string is too long to be encoded in CC-A.
Composite Component C (CC-C)
CC-C must be combined only with GS1-128. CC-C can encode up to 2361 digits of alphanumeric data. This code is based on PDF417 and has multiple widths to match the GS1-128 width and can have from 3 to 90 rows.