I love this kind of thing :)

My "challenge of the day" is trying to figure out why the postings to my
clients general ledger don't balance, and someone else is faced with a
problem of permanently ID'ing steel rails.

What we have in common, is MPE.

Vive la difference!

Regards

Neil

Steve offered.......

> I was the I.S. Director in a foundry (machine tool stuff) and we were
> faced
> with a similar problem. After many trials and errors trying to work
> out a
> barcode label that would stay attached we finally hit upon the
> solution by
> casting the I.D. number as a (3 of 9) bar-code right into the part. An
> "out-of-the-way" flat spot would have the code shown as a set of
> raised
> vertical lines, some wide, some narrow. When a surface grinder was run
> over
> these raised lines, the lines became shiney against the duller
> background
> and that was enough color difference for the bar-code scanner to read
> the
> code. It was crude but effective... and permanent.
> Stamping the bar-code in will be no more intrusive to the material
> than the
> current method of stamping in the I.D. number and they could by done
> at the
> same time since you're changing the die-stamp anyway.
> A bonus: we found that even if someone completely ground the bar-code
> away
> you could recover the image by applying a torch to the area. When the
> metal
> heated up the vertical stripes re-appeared as a different color from
> the
> surrounding area.
> Neat, huh?
>
>