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"As UID/2D codes become the required identification mark for the defense and aerospace industry, Columbia Marking Tools continues to be at the forefront in providing the technology and machine designs and systems to meet individual product and productivity needs," said a company spokesperson. "Recently, Columbia designed and built a special marking machine for a major helicopter manufacturer that placed both man-readable and UID/2D or Square-Dot vision readable codes on a variety of 17 different gear and gearbox components. The identification marks include two lines of copy plus a UID/2D or Square-Dot code. A third line of text can be included if there is available space in the prescribed marking location. "The machine is designed as a stand-alone marking system with industrial casters on the base so it can be easily moved around the manufacturing floor for positioning in different part production areas. Individual part fixtures, also designed and built by Columbia, were provided for each of the 17 different components." Matt
Fournier, Columbia machine design engineer said, "The fixturing for this project
presented a number of challenges. 1) The customer wanted changeover to be fast
with minimal adjustment required. The requirement was 5-10 minutes. The Columbia
design concept was able to reduce that to 1 minute. 2) Fixtures had to locate
and lock in position with the marking spindle and pin in the same mark location
fixture-to-fixture. 3) Fixtures needed to locate and lock the parts with no
marring or damaging of the part surfaces. 4) The different part fixtures needed
to have the ability to be loaded off-the machine with an ergonomic
slide-feed-chase fixture design for easy operation and positioning. The fixtures
are locked into place and secured with a fixed stop. 5) The software and the
touch screen of the machine PCS control needed to be programmed for each part." |
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The basic special marking machine design includes a heavy-duty welded steel machine base construction with a master tooling plate mounted to the top plate for use with the various fixture designs. The machine is self-contained with provisions for mounting all the machine controls, the marking unit and the hand-held vision UID/2D and Square-Dot reader. The marking unit is a standard Columbia DPS (Dot-Peen-Scribe) CNC marker that uses a unique horizontal CNC stepper motor driven marking spindle, equipped with a heavy-duty bearing-supported extended pin housing to accommodate the varying reach requirements of the different parts. The DPS marker can provide ultra-fast dot-peen marks as well as Square-Dot silent scribe marks. Marking depth control is adjustable for the preset marking area of 200mm x 150mm (4-in. x 6-in.). A carbide marking pin is provided for marking materials up to 55 Rc. A special diamond UID/2D marking pin is available for marking parts with hardness levels over 55 Rc. The control for the machine is provided by Columbia's own PCS 2000 HMI marking controller that has been developed specifically for applying UID/2D matrix codes that require marking equipment to be integrated with electronic cameras for mark verification. In this control, CMT pre-installed the Cognex vision/reader software that included both hard wire capabilities and Blue Tooth interfaces. Columbia Marking Tools is a Cognex vision integrator and was able to provide the turnkey services required to supply the vision portion of the marking system. The control utilizes an Intel Celeron 2.0 gigahertz processor with 256 megabytes of PC2700 DDR Ram and 30 gigabytes of available storage. It features a 15-inch TFT touch screen display with preloaded with Windows XP Pro and Signumberic 6.0 marking software. Video and on-screen programming simulation is provided as a teach aid to show the operator how to enter date codes, serial numbers, change the text location or the orientation of the mark and numerous other useful features. The control has two USB ports for off-line or in-line communication of serial data input as well as CD and floppy disc drives. An Ethernet port is also available for CMT-NOW instant service software, allowing Columbia Marking Tools to connect directly to the PCS-2000 control via the internet from the Service Office at Columbia Marking Tools for fast and secure troubleshooting, programming assistance, software upgrades, and even making adjustments to the cameras used on UID/ Square-Dot scribe marking machines. This remote management feature allows the user to directly access vital operating system utilities such as Command Prompt, Task Manager, and Services on the host computer. Other remote management capabilities include Change System Status and diagnostics, View Installed Applications, View Event Log, Edit System Files and Edit Registry. Easy wizard tools take the user through the setup and operation of the CMT-NOW software. For more information contact: Tom Phipps, CEO Columbia Marking Tools, Inc. 27430 Luckino Chesterfield Township, MI 48047 800-469-MARK Fax: 586-949-8401 Email: tjp@columbiamt.com
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