MIL-STD-130 is a US Department of Defence standard practice governing the identification marking of US military property. Its current version, MIL-STD-130N, was issued on 17 December 2007, superseding MIL-STD-130M. It's approved for use across all Departments and Agencies of the DoD. Unlike some of the aerospace standards we've covered before, MIL-STD-130...
Today is the reference date written into Article 13. Here's what it means, what it doesn't mean, and what every battery manufacturer should be doing right now. Today is 18 August 2026. It's the date written into Article 13 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 as the trigger point for harmonised battery labelling...
A Guide to the ReadSmart and VeriSmart 4 Vision Camera Range Every mark we apply eventually gets checked. The real question is how much checking the application actually needs, and that's where most conversations about vision cameras go wrong. Customers ask us for “a camera” when what they need is...
How It Works and When It Pays Off Marking adds nothing to the performance of an aero engine component. It does not make a disc stronger, a BLISK lighter or a casing more efficient. And yet without it, that component cannot be fitted, tracked, maintained or replaced. It is one of...
Portable laser markers solve a problem that has frustrated manufacturers for years. What do you do when the part is too big, too heavy or too awkward to bring to a machine? Instead of lifting a casting, a chassis or a length of pipe onto a benchtop system, you bring...
We don't normally quote Commission survey data in a blog post. But three weeks ago, the European Commission's DG GROW held its second public webinar on the Digital Product Passport for batteries, and some of what came out of it is worth passing on. It tells you a lot about...
QR codes and Data Matrix codes are both 2D barcodes, both store far more than a linear code ever could, and both turn up constantly in industrial marking conversations. They're not interchangeable, though. Choosing the wrong one means either a code your production scanner struggles to read reliably, or a...
An aero engine disc rarely gives you a flat face to work with. Casings, blisks and turbine rings come with curves, bores, internal diameters and angled faces that a fixed marking head simply cannot reach. On a component where a misplaced or unverified mark can mean rework, concession or scrap,...
For most of the past decade, traceability in battery manufacturing stopped at the pack. A unique identifier on the outer housing was enough to satisfy quality systems and recall requirements. The individual cells inside were treated as interchangeable, identified only by batch, not by unit. That approach will not satisfy...
And what to use instead. Walk into almost any battery manufacturing facility today and you will find adhesive labels. They are quick to apply, cheap to produce and familiar from decades of product labelling practice. They are also almost certainly non-compliant with Article 13 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542. The regulation uses one...
