EuroWire March 2015

News Technology

www.candorsweden.com • Electrolytic plating • Candojet hot water cleaning • Electrolytic & Ultrasonic degreasing • Welding wire cleaning and copper coating • Pickling & phosphating

One tag, start to finish

InfoSight addresses many marking challenges for the wire, pipe, tube and steel industries – helping manufacturers reduce costs, increase product traceability and eliminate errors. It is now possible to track the entire wire production process with one barcoded tag – from start to finish – without re-attachment and without re-identification after the pickling and/or annealing process. • Improved traceability of each piece back to the parent material • Automatic data collection during processing • Error proofing and error tracking • Inventory accuracy and improved efficiency in taking inventory • Improved shipping accuracy • Field identification Plastic and paper tags used in the past had the potential to make the inventory process easier with their ability to hold barcoded information, virtually eliminating human error. These tags were able to survive the process of pickling for periods of up to 90 minutes. However, when it came to the process of annealing, at temperatures of 1,400ºF (760ºC) or greater, these tags would vanish in a puff of smoke. Applying tags after the annealing process meant a wait of several days until the coils cooled. This opened the door to more potential for human error. Early metal tags survived through the annealing process, but in some cases would not withstand the pickling. They required noisy stamping machines that were difficult and expensive to maintain. Barcoding systems for metal tags were not suitable for all industrial applications. This meant the use of manual inventory control, which again meant the risk of human error. InfoSight created the first non-contact, laser-markable tag system in 1995. The next step in the process was developing tags that would survive the myriad of different annealing and pickling Barcoding provides:

Steam-cleaning plant

Multi wire cleaning plant

▲ ▲ An example of one of the InfoSight tags

processes utilised by the world’s wire manufacturers. InfoSight developed the Pic-Anneal® laser printable tag. The Pic-Anneal® tag has a two-hour resistance to acid baths of 20% H 2 SO 4 at 180ºF (82ºC) and 24% HCL at 100ºF (38ºC). It also withstands 1,400ºF heat for 48 hours and 1,800ºF (1,000ºC) for two hours. tags measure 3" wide and a slot or hole is punched near the top for easy attaching to wire coils. laser, resulting in black print across the white surface. The barcodes printed on the tags are readable by standard barcode readers. A full selection of metal tags is available from InfoSight – all designed to withstand harsh manufacturing environments. Tags can be custom sized and pre-printed tags to most customer specifications. The company also offers a line of laser printers which allow customers to print their own metal tags and to change their layout and barcodes, as needed. The Pic-Anneal® laser-marked The tags are marked with a CO 2

Ultrasonic & Electrolytic

CANDOR Sweden AB Tel: +46 11 21 75 00 Fax: +46 11 12 63 12 Email: info@candorsweden.com

InfoSight – USA Website : www.infosight.com

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March 2015