Space Code Solves Industries' Identity Crisis

Digital data matrix technologies developed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to identify the millions of parts that comprise Space Shuttles such as the "Endeavour" are helping to launch a new commercial endeavor.

Symbology Research Center, a partnership between CiMatrix Corp. of Massachusetts and NASA, began operations Aug. 5 in Huntsville to commercially market the new method of identifying products with invisible and virtually indestructible markings.

The laser-etched markings are seen as the next generation of product "bar codes," already familiar around the world. Traditional bar codes can only be used on paper or plastic packaging and are not tamper resistant. Digital data matrix codes are applied directly to the product. The markings can range from as small as four microns to as large as two square feet.

Donald Roxby, director of Symbology Research Center, reports interest in the new marking system from a broad range of commercial interests: "Everything from electronic parts to pharmaceuticals to livestock," he said. Roxby sees a growing need for an identification system that can be placed directly on a product while conforming to the product's shape, size, color and other properties. Paper bar coding, he said, will continue to have uses in many industries, but - where identification of a small part is essential or where the paper bar coding could deteriorate - digital data matrix technologies hold the solution. Roxby and his staff expect to handle up to 500 product marking problems each year. They also will be exploring ever more opportunities to use the new product coding system.

Working with Roxby has been NASA engineer Fred Schramm from the Marshall Center. "NASA began using paper bar coding technologies in 1983," Schramm said. "In 1986, the Marshall Center began examining the possibility of developing a paperless identification system. Problems had been experienced with the paper on which the code was imprinted separating from the part. When you consider the thousands and thousands of parts in something such as the Space Shuttle, this can be a huge problem. Another problem is the durability of paper bar codes. They cannot survive being placed on parts exposed to high heating, such as the thermal tiles on the orbiters during re-entry.

In 1991, Roxby said, NASA determined that converting to digital data matrix coding would save $1 million a year on the orbiter fleet alone.

Proven in the demanding environment of space flight, the decision to commercialize the technology was a natural one. NASA agreed to partner with CiMatrix - a division of Robotic Vision Systems, Inc., (RVSI) of New York - to identify potential sites for the Symbology Research Center. CiMatrix has a strong track record in the bar-coding industry, having manufactured labels and their readers and recorders since the early 1980s.

Roxby added that industries see the new system as a means of complying with new federal requirements to include more content information on labels. Where space is at a premium and bar coding the information onto the product is impractical, digital data matrix technologies offer a solution.

Many other industries are expressing interest in the new system, and - as industry's demands increase - the Huntsville center will serve as the prototype for additional centers across the country and around the world.

For further information, contact Roxby at (256) 830-8123