MIL-STD-130 Direct Part Marking

If you need to comply with the Department of Defense’s UID Mandate, you might well be using our WincoID durable labels or printing solutions.

There are times however, when a pressure sensitive label isn’t the best solution for marking a particular part – that is where Direct Part Marking (DPM) comes in. Check this Roll Royce document on Direct Part Marking. It has been around for quite a while, but still contains good info.

Here at ID Technology, we have a number of ways to help get your parts accurately marked and verified to be able to show compliance with MIL-STD-130.

Let’s take a look at some of them:

Laser Marking System for DPM.

Laser marking is a great solution for UID Direct Part Marking. Digital, clean, low cost per mark and the ability to produce superb barcode quality are characteristics of this technology.  Our YAG and fiber lasers are perfect for laser etching high quality UID Datamatrix codes and human readable data onto a wide range of substrates, including metals and most plastics.

When using YAG lasers, it is important that anyone in the area uses laser protective eyewear to avoid any possible exposure to scattered or reflected laser light. We strongly suggest that the area around the laser is shielded appropriately.

For semi-automatic DPM applications our iLaserBox workstation is a good idea.

This is a self contained workstation, that makes the laser safe to Class 1 standard, mounts both the laser and the part to be marked and contains an on-board computer to manage the laser and the marking. A simple way to get started safely with laser Direct Part Marking.

UID DPM Verification

Any part that is marked for compliance with MIL-STD-130 needs to be verified in accordance with the standard.

We currently offer two types of DPM UID verifier, the handheld Cognex model and the fixed (usually) Microscan.

Both are quite easy to use and will give consistent results. The Microscan DPM Verifier is somewhat more sophisticated, but there are times when the flexibility of the handheld Cognex is needed too.

ID Technology – WincoID has been working with defense contractors (from the largest to some of the smallest) for many years, helping with successful MIL-STD-130 UID compliance as well as the MIL-STD-129 for labeling of packaging.

We’d love to help you as well so, whatever your Department of Defense labeling issues, we are always ready to jump in. Give me a call at 603-598-1553 to talk labeling, DPM or verification.