Direct marking concepts

Direct marking or direct part marking (DPM) is the process of marking an identifier in an item either intrusively or non-intrusively. This section will help you to understand different types of direct marking. 

Data content

Three types of data content can be marked on the MRO-object:

AIDC	Human Readable Interpretation (HRI)	Non-HRI text

• AIDC: a barcode or RFID tag
• Human Readable Interpretation (HRI): letters and numbers that people can read and are a one-to-one illustration of the encoded data in GS1 AIDC data carriers.
• Non-HRI text: letters and numbers that people can read and may or may not be encoded in GS1 AIDC data carriers.

Marking methods

Three main direct marking methods can be distinghuised:

Permanent marking	Direct Part Marking	Non-permanent marking

• Permanent marking is a type of direct marking that is connected to an MRO-object in such a way that it cannot be removed without altering the MRO-object itself and/or that is expected to outlive the MRO-object. (Please note that a durable label can sometimes be sufficient fo accomplish this.)
  • Permanent marking of a barcode (known as Direct Part Marking) 
• Non-permanent marking is a type of direct marking that can be applied or removed from an MRO-object without altering the object itself (bolted, glued, banded, etc.). This type of marking may be re-applied several times during the lifetime of an MRO-object and is not expected to outlive the MRO-object.