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Unique
Identification (UID) for Department of Defense (DoD) and other
military applications
"......for new equipment, major modifications, and re
procurements of equipment and spares shall begin planning
to apply Unique Identification (UID) on tangible items using
the attached guidance. UID is a mandatory DoD
requirement on all solicitations issued on or
after January 1, 2004. An item will be uniquely
identified if it is: (1) greater
than $5,000 in acquisition cost, (2) a piece of equipment
or a repairable item less than $5,000 in acquisition cost
that is either serially managed, mission essential or
controlled inventory, or (3) a consumable item or material
only if permanent identification is required....."
".....The
UID component data elements, at a minimum, shall be contained
in a Data Matrix ECC200 symbol. The physical marks that contain
the UID-required elements shall last for the physical life
of the item......"
The
above is taken from Department of Defense memoranda and spells
out the requirement for placing unique identification marks
on equipment that DoD purchases. It is intended to harmonise
marking standards in the military and aerospace industries.
UID references Dod Mil-Std 130 and incorporates the aerospace
ATA 2000 specification which describes the need to barcode
aerospace parts. Visit
UID
website.
Aerospace
Direct Part Marking for Component
Part Identification & Traceability |
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Simac
Masic & TSS in conjunction with Microscan is working
with a major aero-engine manufacturer that has taken
a major lead in adopting the 2D Datamatrix code as the
standard method of marking its aircraft engine parts.
To give an idea of the scale of the task a modern jet
engine will consist of around 10,000 separate parts.
Wherever possible codes are marked directly onto the
component to give permanent, "cradle-to-grave" identification.
The Datamatrix code can store a lot of data in a small
space and is robust enough to be readable after many
years of use in tough environments. |
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traceability and identification are important in many
industries but probably none more so than aerospace
where safety is the highest priority. A complete aircraft
consists of hundreds of thousands of individual components
produced by thousands of suppliers. These aircraft components
are bought together at module stages and eventually
of course into the final aircraft assembly. This puts
very high demands on identification and traceability
which has until recently been done by marking human
readable part numbers etc directly onto the product
or, if the product is too small it will have a tag.
Human readable codes can be misread and errors can occur
when entering the data into a log. The codes have to
be read and logged at many different stages of manufacture
and again when the aircraft is repaired or overhauled.
This just multiplies the potential for errors. |
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To
reduce the risk of such errors the MIL-STD 130 (previously
ATA Spec 2000) specifies that component parts
should be marked with machine readable, as well as
human readable, unique identification codes. The coding
method should be 2D data matrix codes. Other 2D symbologies
have evolved but Datamatrix is currently the predominant
one. The main advantages of Data Matrix is (i) much
higher density of data storage and (ii) built in error
checking that can re-build a damaged code prevents
codes being misread (worst case is the code is not
read at all). Additionally the code can be read regardless
of orientation. Last but not least, the Datamatrix
is an "open architecture code" which means
that the encoding algorithms are freely available
and not restricted to a certain manufacturer. For
more information please contact
us
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Simac
Masic & TSS provides MIL-STD 130, component and part traceability
solutions for DoD, Aerospace and Military Unique Identification
(UID) requirements using Datamatrix 2D symbols and technology.
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