Case study

Swapping Adhesive Labels for Direct Marking: Dependable Barcode Identification on Chrome-Plated Steel

Label Damage and Mislabelling on Chrome-Plated Components

The customer produces chrome-plated steel components for industrial machinery, and each one must carry a unique barcode for identification by its own end customer. Until then, this identification relied on an adhesive barcode label applied at a separate labelling station.

This arrangement gave rise to two issues. During the downstream production operations, the labels suffered scratches, soiling and damage, which undermined the legibility of the barcode. Moreover, as labelling was carried out away from the main process, the wrong label was occasionally fitted to a component, introducing a risk of mismatched identification.

A Legible, Durable Barcode Marked Directly on the Component

The identification needed to withstand the remaining production operations rather than deteriorate along the way, which excluded any solution based on an applied label. The marking process therefore had to deliver a legible barcode directly on the chrome-plated steel component. Lastly, the identification step had to be positioned at the point of manufacture rather than at a separate station, so as to close the gap in which mislabelling had been occurring.

A Standard L-MOOV Applying the Barcode at Source

SIC MARKING equipped the customer with the L-MOOV, a fully safeguarded portable laser marking system, to mark the barcode and its accompanying text straight onto the chrome-plated steel component. The mark is applied at the point of manufacture, doing away with the separate label-application step altogether. Marking the component directly eliminates the label as a point of failure, whilst building the step into the production flow removes the hand-over at which mislabelling used to occur.

Identification Secured on the Component Itself

With the barcode marked directly on the component, the customer has eliminated the label as a source of failure: no further damage, soiling or peeling compromising legibility. Carrying out the marking at the production step itself has likewise removed the hand-over at which the wrong label could be fitted, tackling the mislabelling risk at its root.