In recent years, traceability has become one of the key issues in global trade, especially for large industries, which use numerous components from different subcontractors in their production processes.
This is why it is of paramount importance for companies to find the most effective method to track their products and ensure complete control over all operations involving them, from manufacturing to delivery to the consumer.
Another reason companies are looking for the best traceability tools for their products is that traceability is now synonymous with improving brand perception in the marketplace, increasing productivity, and reducing operating and maintenance costs.
Tracking a product means marking it with an identification code that makes it a unique item, different from others in its own category. Through these codes, it is possible to trace the product, the manufacturer, the date and the place where the item was made, making it much easier to deal with any malfunction problems and to identify responsibility in the long and complex production chain.
For traceability, alphanumeric serial codes have been used for decades because they are simple and easy to read. Bar codes, which we are all familiar with, provide useful information about retail products and can be called the progenitors of 2D codes.
Introduced in the information technology development era of the twentieth century, i.e., the 1940s, these codes are particularly useful because they can be read automatically, reducing checkout times and the risk of errors.
Nevertheless, in the 30 years following the 1940s, a problem arose regarding the amount of information to be coded, especially for large industrial productions that needed to identify many more products and component specifications. This is why two-dimensional codes were introduced to the market in the 1990s, which solve the problem often also eliminating the need for separate external databases.
There are different types of 2D codes, from QRcode to DataMatrix, which have different characteristics and important advantages. The DataMatrix code in particular is significantly used in various industries, such as Automotive and Medical, due to its ability to hold a huge amount of data in a very small space and its durability, which makes it tough and almost impossible to damage.
The importance of using codes for traceability lies in the fact that, through them, information about the product travels with it during all stages of its journey, until it reaches the final consumer. They are therefore more of a guarantee of reliability, making them the preferred choice for tracking products in the industrial sector. Their application can be achieved through various processes, the most effective of which is laser marking.
Through this system, it is possible to keep track of our products by creating codes with extreme versatility of ASCII characters and symbols, which can be modified directly within the software. Marking also places the code at a certain level of depth, reducing the risk of damaging it and making it unreadable.
Automation
In large industrial production, processes need to be integrated to save both time and cost. Laser marking systems are purpose-built to be integrated and configured according to the production chain, connected to software and highly dynamic.
Endurance
Laser marking is indelible and almost impossible to damage. This is critical if we need to derive information about a damaged product or after a long period of time.
Data Dynamics
With an automated process, we are able to monitor data constantly, in order to capture the information needed to implement production or make necessary changes for the next stage.
Size
The laser spot is very small in size, which means it can mark even hard-to-reach parts of the product.
Cost Reduction
Compared with other traceability systems, laser marking is the most cost-effective one, as it has no maintenance expenses and no waste material disposal costs.
Quality
Laser marking guarantees very high accuracy even with complex geometric details.
SOURCE: Lasit
We thank Lasit for the article, which focuses attention on a topic of imperative value.
