Introduction
The EAN/UCC-14, also called SCC-14, DUN-14 or U.P.C. Shipping
Container Code, is a 14-digit number assigned to fixed content
shipping containers. SCC-14 can have two types of barcode representations. The most
widely used representation is UCC/EAN-128 format, with the Application
Identifier (AI) 01. The ITF-14, which is based on
Interleaved 2 of 5, is also freqently used.
A SCC-14 number consists of 14 digits that starts with an indicator digit and ends with a
check digit. The check digit is calculated according to the UCC/EAN
algorithm (same as UPC/EAN check digit). If you need to calculate the
check digit, click here. Note that
this check digit is usually not the same as the check digit in a UPC-A
or EAN-13 number unless the package indicator is 0.
A SCC-14 number contains the following information:
- Digit 1: Package indicator (PI)
- Digits 2-3: UPC numbering system/EAN country prefix
- Digits 4-8: Manufacturer Code
- Digits 9-13: Item identification number
- Digit 14: Check digit
The first digit, Package Indicator (PI), indicates package
variants. For example, you package the same product into two different
cases with 1 case contains 10 items and the another contains 12. You
assign 1 for the first case and 2 for the second. However, there is no
standard mandating that how many items should be placed in the case for
PI=1. The quantity is checked against the database.
In two cases you may assign PI=0. One case is to indicate the item
number identifying a container is different from the item number on the
units inside the container. The other case is when the container
contains 1 unit of the item. When stored in the database, a 12-digit UPC
or 13-digit EAN code are stored into a 14-digit numeric format. The
14-digit is identical to the SCC-14 with PI=0.
To derive the SCC-14 number from a UPC-A number, first drop the last
check digit. Adds 0 at the beginning to make a 12-digit number (the
digit 0 is the country code for US and Canada). Then add the package
indicator to make up 13 digits. Calculate the check digit based on this
13-digit number (See section below) and append it to the end. The result
is SCC-14.
To derive the SCC-14 number, first drop the last EAN-13 check digit.
Adds the package indicator at the beginning and calculate the SC-14
checksum. Append the new check digit to the end and you get the SCC-14
number.
SCC-14 Barcode Format
The SCC-14 is encoded with Code128 symbology (UCC/EAN-128). Since UCC/EAN128
is also used to encode other information in the shipping label, two
digits, called Application Identifier (AI) are added at the beginning of
the barcode. The AI for SCC-14 is 01.
SCC-14 can also be depicted in Interleaved 2 of 5 format. In the images
above, the left one is Interleaved 2 of 5 format, and the right one is
drawn in UCC/EAN-128. Both images were created with
Monterey Barcode Creator.
Update: since we published this article, we have received many inquiries on how to determine the
barcode format. A simple method is to count the number of bars. If the
barcode is in interleaved 2 of 5 format, it should have 39 bars in
total. For barcodes in EAN-128 format, the number is 37. Another way is
to examine the end of the barcode. The last three bars of an EAN-128
barcode are always in 3x, 1x, and 2x of the smallest width (X
dimension).
Check Digit Calculation
EAN-14 check digit is calculated the same way as calculating checksum
for UPC-A/EAN-13 numbers. Here is
the steps to calculate SCC-14 check digit:
- From the right to left, start with odd position, assign the odd/even
position to each digit.
- Sum all digits in odd position and multiply the
result by 3.
- Sum all digits in even position.
- Sum the results of step 3 and step 4.
- divide the result of step 4 by 10. The check digit is the number
which adds the remainder to 10.
A web-based free utility to calculate SCC check digit can be found
here. |
