Direct Part Marking(DPM)
Aerospace, automotive, medicine, and even racing teams face growing requirements to access key product identifi-: cation data, such as serial numbers, batch numbers, and manufacturing dates for traceability on quality control, warranty, or other factors. Automotive manufacturers require traceability for such reasons, and so do racing teams like Wegner Motorsports, which needed a part-marking system offering instant validation of engine components.
Aerospace/defense manufacturers have extensively deployed direct part marking technologies far longer than most other companies, partly due to the Department of Defense (DoD) mandates requiring parts be marked on mission-critical rotating components in aircraft engines, as well as other military equipment. Automotive builders also are early adopters because of federally mandated traceability requirements for recalling defective components. In contrast, medical systems have lagged those industries in adopting part-marking technology, with some observers noting that there are relatively few standards for manufacturers of medical parts. In veterinary medicine, standards are evolving for the traceability of animal medicines in veterinary care.
Many medical implants and surgical instruments are marked with laser-etch processes, Gerst notes, although permanent marks can be chemically etched, dot-peened, or laser etched. Cognex recently added its new DataMan 700 handheld ID readers, which are said to be capable of reading any code, on any surface, made by any marking method. The company offers a broad range of imagebased ID readers and code-quality verifiers used on marks from printed barcodes on labels to the most challenging 2-D codes directly marked on metal parts.
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