Leading Marking Coder Manufacturers

Being able to locate parts, assemblies, and products becomes more important when they are ready to be sold since the majority of large items are not placed on display but are warehoused and stored. The marking code on an item provides data to locate the item and match it to the customer who is purchasing it.

What is a Marking Coder?

Marking coders come in several forms from ones that produce bar codes to ones that engrave into the part or product as well as fiber lasers. The process of a marking coder can be completed as a product is being produced and added as a part of production. In other cases, the marking code can be added when a product is completed and ready for shipping.

The concept of identifying products with numbers has existed for hundreds of years since inventory control has always been a necessity. What has been the most recent development in the computer age is using a marking coder to add identifying information on the product by printing, engraving, etching, or embossing. The type of marking coder is selected to fit the product.

As people in the textile industry are well aware, the placing of a code can be done by putting a fabric tag on an item. This method has worked well for many years for garment producers. Tags have been widely used for many years as well as printing on boxes. The next step in identifying an item is to have information emblazoned on the product in the box. Over the years, several methods have been attempted to put information on an item, which have included sticking or taping tags. The lack of permanence of this method led to the development of the making code industry.

Types of Marking Codes

It may be easy to decide what type of marking coder you want to use. For large machinery, it is common to have the code engraved on the device or have its information engraved on a metal plate and placed on the equipment. This is also true of computers, laptops, cell phones, bicycles, and other metal or plastic items.

Once the decision is made to use a marking coder, the next step is to determine what type of information to include, which is restricted by the amount of space and the inability to stamp, emboss, or engrave on complex or intricate items. Of all the decisions that have to be made, this tends to be the most difficult because it has to be concise enough to guide people, digital enough to be computerized, and descriptive enough to clearly identify the product.

The type of marking coder generally determines the types of information that can be imprinted. In most situations, words are not used since they are too complex where numbers offer sufficient limitation but provide accurate information. The most logical first number to be used is the part number, which can contain a few letters and numbers. Other numbers may be added to indicate color, size, style, function, and other details that describe the product.

Types of Marking Coders

There is an endless number of marking coders available on the market. Each type can easily fit into any production system or application. A very common type is the industrial ink marking machine that places a wide assortment of information on items during production. This type of machine is flexible enough to place identifying information during, before, or after production.

The next step in the marking process is the fiber laser that can be adjusted to place information by engraving on metals or be used with a shorter pulse to mark sensitive and delicate items. Much like the ink marking process, lasers can place their marks using different colors.

Another form of marking is indenting, which is completed by indenting, embossing, or debossing. This type of aggressive marking method is designed for cars, heavy machinery, and metal products. The function of indenting marking is to place a permanent indelible mark on items.

These three methods are only a few of the types of marking code processes available for the identification and cataloging of inventory and products.