Trace marking and verification

Trace marking of complex multidimensional parts

Direct part marking (DPM) is a process of permanently marking work pieces with different product information. DPM is often used by automotive and aerospace manufacturers in order to reliably identify their parts. This allows the tracking of parts through their full life-cycle. Aircraft parts, for example, may be in service for over 30 years and each part has its own manufacturing history, which needs to be individually identified.

There are many ways to uniquely identify work pieces. These include alpha-numeric data, data matrix, QR codes, bar codes, among others.

An important part of reliable life-long marking is the capability to verify the results during the marking process. This ensures marking quality and traceability of the part for the following process steps through its life-cycle.

Flexmill has developed a compact hybrid marking and verification cell for complex multidimensional work pieces. The system automates part handling, marking and verification. Laser and dot peen marking can be utilized simultaneously and marking trace quality and validity is verified after the marking process.

Hybrid marking cell with laser and dot peen marking capability

Verification of marking location and size, Optical Character Verification, or OCV, is a machine vision software tool used to inspect the print or marked quality of an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) string and confirm its legibility.

Verification of marked texts (dimensions & location, OCR & OCV)

Data matrix verification according to the industry standards

AS9132, Rev A

ISO/IEC 29158:2011

ISO/IEC 15415

ISO/IEC 15416

Verification of marked DPM codes according to industry standards