Should asset tags be static or dynamic?

Static if the code encodes the asset ID itself and your system resolves it: free, unlimited, works with no internet. Dynamic if you want to change where the label points after it is stuck on, or you want scan counts per asset. You can start static and add dynamic codes later without reprinting, provided the static code encodes an ID your system can look up.

What size should a QR code on an asset label be?

Roughly 20-25mm across for something read at arm's length, scaling up with the distance it will be read from. Below about 20mm scanning becomes unreliable on older phones and in poor light.

Will the code still scan when the label is scratched?

At error correction level H a code tolerates roughly 30% damage and still decodes. That is why H is the right default for asset labels even though it makes the code denser at the same size.

Is this an asset management or CMMS system?

No. OpenQR generates the labels and records when they were scanned. It holds no stock levels, work orders, depreciation or maintenance schedules. It points at whatever system you already use for those.

Can I generate the codes from our asset register automatically?

Yes. The REST API and the MCP server both create and repoint dynamic codes in bulk, so a nightly job can create codes for new assets and repoint ones that have moved.

QR Code Asset Tagging: Label Equipment, Tools and IT Kit

Create a QR code

A blank identification plate riveted to the side of a scuffed aluminium flight case.

QR codes for asset and equipment tagging

A maintenance engineer standing in front of a chiller does not want a portal, a login or a spreadsheet. They want the manual for that chiller. A QR code on the machine is the shortest path between the asset and what somebody needs to know about it, and the whole job is putting one distinct code on every distinct thing.

This is not an inventory management system

OpenQR makes the labels and tells you when they were scanned. It does not hold stock levels, purchase orders, depreciation or work orders. If you need those, you need a CMMS or an asset register, and OpenQR is the layer that puts a scannable code on the thing and points it at whatever system you already have.

The job is one code per asset, not one code reprinted

The test that decides everything else is whether each code needs a different destination. A poster in a corridor is one code printed fifty times. A fleet of fifty extractor fans is fifty codes, each opening that fan's own page. Asset tagging is always the second shape, which is why it produces more codes per customer than any other use on this site.

One per machine, so a scan opens that machine's manual and service history
One per tool or item of plant, so a hire fleet can be checked in and out
One per laptop, projector or interactive panel across a school or office
One per fire door, extinguisher or emergency light on an inspection round
One per rack, room or cupboard, so a location can be scanned as well as a thing

Numbering a range without building a spreadsheet

Most asset work starts as a sequence rather than a list: ASSET-0001 to ASSET-0250, or PUMP-01 to PUMP-40. The bulk generator has a Number a range mode for exactly this. Set a prefix, a first and last number and how many digits to pad to, and it generates the whole run. Give it a destination pattern containing {seq} and each code opens its own record; leave the pattern empty and each code simply encodes its own tag, which is what a plain printed asset label usually is.

If you already have an asset register, paste it instead. The first column can be the ID, the description or the URL in any order, and the tool shows you which column it is going to encode and lets you change it before anything is generated, because getting that wrong silently is how you end up with 250 labels that scan to the word “Description”.

Labels that survive the environment they go into

An asset label lives a harder life than a menu. It gets wiped with solvent, rubbed by sleeves, heated, chilled and left in daylight for years. The label stock matters as much as the code.

Environment	Sensible stock	Why
Indoor office / IT kit	Polyester or polypropylene	Solvent-resistant, will not tear if picked at
Workshop / plant room	Polyester with a permanent adhesive	Survives oil, degreaser and repeated wiping
Outdoor / exposed	UV-stable polyester or anodised aluminium	Paper and cheap vinyl fade to unreadable in months
Curved or textured surfaces	Conformable vinyl, code kept small	A code wrapped round a tight radius stops decoding
Very hot or very cold	Metal tag or high-temperature polyester	Adhesives creep and release at the extremes

Use high error correction here, not the default

Error correction level H lets a code still decode with roughly 30% of it damaged, which is the difference between a scuffed label working and a scuffed label needing replacing. It costs you a slightly denser code at the same physical size. On asset labels that trade is almost always worth it. Set it in the generator before you export.

Size follows scanning distance, not preference. A label read at arm's length wants roughly 20–25mm across; anything read from a walkway or a gantry needs to scale up with the distance. There is a full breakdown in the print size guide, and the bulk generator will export at an exact millimetre size and DPI so what your label printer receives is what you specified.

What the scan log does and does not prove

Every scan of a dynamic code is counted, with a date, a rough location and a device class. Over time that becomes a useful last seen signal: an asset nobody has scanned in eighteen months is worth a look, and a code being scanned in a town you have no site in is worth a different kind of look.

Be honest about the limits, because the temptation to oversell this is real. A scan proves somebody pointed a phone at that label. It does not prove the asset was serviced, present, working, or even still attached to the thing it was stuck to. It is a breadcrumb, not an audit trail. Anyone who needs a real chain of custody needs a system that records who did what, and the code should point at that system.

Scan data is aggregated as it is written and no scanner is ever identified: no cookie, no device ID, nothing linking two scans to one person. Geography is never named below five scans in the window. That is what makes it shareable inside an organisation without a privacy conversation.

Wiring it into a system you already run

Asset work is the one use case on this site with a genuine integration story, because the codes are usually created by a script against a register rather than by hand. The REST API creates and repoints codes in bulk, and the MCP server lets an agent do the same in plain English. A common shape is: export the register nightly, create any codes that are missing, and repoint the ones whose asset has moved.

Static codes are free and unlimited and never expire, which suits a tag that encodes its own ID. Dynamic codes are the ones you can repoint after the label is stuck on, and they are what gives you the scan log. Three free, then Pro. For a 250-asset estate that is a Pro decision, and it is worth making deliberately rather than discovering at label 4.

Tagging an estate, start to finish

1
Decide what a scan should open
The manual, the service record, or a page in your CMMS. If that page does not exist yet, encode the asset ID as plain text now and add the destination later with dynamic codes.
2
Generate the range or paste the register
Number a range for a fresh scheme, or paste your existing asset list and check the column mapping before generating.
3
Export at the right size and error correction
Millimetres at 300 DPI, error correction H, SVG if your label printer will take vector.
4
Proof before you print
The contact sheet prints every code with its filename underneath. Scan a few off the screen, because finding a problem now costs nothing.
5
Apply and spot-check
Scan the first and last label of the run on a real phone, in the real light, at the real distance.

Up to 500 per batch as static codes, free and with no account, and there is no limit on how many batches you run. Editable dynamic codes are capped at 200 per batch because each one is a redirect we host.

Make the whole set at once

The bulk tool opens seeded with the shape of this job: example rows in your vocabulary, and the filename pattern that suits it. Free, unlimited and with no account for static codes.

Open the bulk generator

The job is one code per asset, not one code reprinted

Numbering a range without building a spreadsheet

Labels that survive the environment they go into

What the scan log does and does not prove

Wiring it into a system you already run

Jobs in this area

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