Original Date: 02/10/2003
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Bender Shipbuilding and Repair Company, Inc. is developing an ink marker system that will be integrated with its laser cutting system to provide rapid placing of line marking and printing of text on all materials. Future capabilities will include placing bar coding on all materials for tracking.

Most shipyards use a punch marker for placing alignment and reference marks on steel and aluminum plates. This process is slow, noisy, and, in some cases, may not be accurate. Shipyards use paint sticks for manually writing identifying text on each part. Bender Shipbuilding and Repair Company, Inc. uses its laser cutters for etching alignment and reference marks on steel plates; however, lasers are much too slow for etching text and cannot etch aluminum. Bender is developing an ink marker system that can be used to mark and print text on both steel and aluminum. The ink marker can also be used to place bar codes on parts for material control and tracking.

Bender’s ink marker system for line marking and printing two-inch text on all materials should be installed and operating by October 2003. The system will be fully integrated into Bender’s laser cutting system controller and its nesting and numerical control software. The ink marking system will also fit into any shipyard’s legacy plasma and oxy-gas cutting systems. Future plans incorporate the ability to print bar codes on parts.

The ink marking system, when developed and installed, will provide quick, accurate marking of materials. It will also allow high-speed text marking and bar coding. While ink marking will reduce cycle time for part processing, the bar coding capability will enhance material tracking.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.