Case study
Barcode stickers damaged or applied to the wrong part during production
Because the stickers were put on at a separate labelling station, they ended up scratched, dirty or attached to the wrong part, which compromised barcode traceability.
A readable barcode marked straight onto chrome-plated steel
The client wanted the barcode applied right at the production step, eliminating the separate station where the labelling errors were happening.
A standard L-MOOV fibre laser marking the barcode right where the part is made
SIC MARKING delivered the L-MOOV, a standard fibre laser unit, to mark the barcode and the related text directly onto the part at the production step.
The client makes chrome-plated steel parts for industrial equipment and has to give every part a unique barcode so that its end customer can identify it. That identification used to be handled with an adhesive barcode sticker put on at a separate labelling station.
Two problems came out of this setup. As the parts moved through later production steps, the stickers were exposed to scratches, dirt and damage, which reduced barcode readability. On top of that, since labelling happened outside the main process, some parts ended up with the wrong sticker, creating a risk of mismatched identification.
The identification had to hold up through the remaining production steps instead of degrading along the way, which ruled out any approach based on an applied label. The marking method therefore needed to deliver a readable barcode directly on the chrome-plated steel part. And the identification step had to take place right at the production step rather than at a separate station, to eliminate the gap where the labelling errors were occurring.
SIC MARKING provided the client with the L-MOOV, a fully protected portable laser marking system, to mark the barcode and its associated text directly onto the chrome-plated steel part. The mark is made right at the production step, so the separate label-application operation is no longer needed. Marking the part itself takes the sticker out of the equation as a failure point, and bringing the operation into the production flow does away with the handoff where the labelling errors used to happen.
Marking the barcode directly on the part let the client eliminate the sticker as a source of failure; there is no more damage, dirt or peeling to affect readability. Performing the marking at the production step itself also did away with the handoff where the wrong sticker could be applied, which addresses the labelling-error risk at its origin.
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