Volume 5, Number 5     September/October 1997

Advanced Technologies

Invisible, Tamper-Resistant Bar Codes

IGITAL DATA MATRIX TECHNOLOGY USED to identify the millions of Space Shuttle parts, including those on Endeavour, is being commercialized to make bar-coding tamper resistant and invisible to the naked eye. This technology is filling a growing commercial industry need for an identification system that can be placed directly on a product, regardless of various properties such as shape, size and color.

The invisible and virtually indestructible laser-etched markings, applied directly to the product, range in size from four microns to two square feet, and they are seen as the next generation of the already familiar product "bar codes." Traditional bar codes are not tamper resistant. They can only be used on paper or plastic packaging and on stickers and labels.

Donald Roxby, director of the new Symbology Research Center, Huntsville, Alabama, inspects a sample of automotive glass engraved with a digital matrix identifier code.

The number and type of commercial products now using the digital matrix identifier codes are expanding daily.

Production began in August in Huntsville, Alabama, at Symbology Research Center, a partnership between NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and bar-code industry leader CiMatrix Corporation of Massachusetts. Marshall began examining the possibility of developing a paperless identification system (digital data matrix technology) in 1986 because the paper-imprinted bar coding could not survive the high heat during space flight and was not adhering to the Space Shuttle thermal tiles, says Marshall engineer Fred Schramm, who is working on the project with Symbology Research Center Director Donald Roxby. Digital data matrix technology proved effective in the demanding space flight environment.

In 1991, NASA determined that converting to digital data matrix coding would save $1 million a year on the orbiter fleet alone, Roxby said. Industries view the new system as a means of complying with new federal requirements of including more content information on labels, he said. Where space is at a premium and bar coding the information onto the product is impractical, digital data matrix technologies offer a solution, according to Roxby. Paper bar coding will continue to have uses in many industries, Roxby said, but digital data matrix technologies hold the solution when the identification of a small part is essential or where the paper bar coding could deteriorate.

Many other industries, including electronic parts, pharmaceuticals and livestock, are expressing interest in the new system. As industry demands increase, the Huntsville center will serve as the prototype for additional centers across the country and around the world. More opportunities to use the new product coding system will be explored while Roxby and his staff expect to handle up to 500 product marking problems each annually.

For more information, contact Fred Schramm at Marshall Space Flight Center.
Call 205/544-0823 Fax: 205/544-5890 E-mail: Harry.F.Schramm@msfc.nasa.gov

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