Dot Peen Pin Marking Trailer Frames – Case Study
Marking machines can be used to create permanent identification marks that can help owners and local authorities identify and recover stolen property. This is a popular application for our marking machines, and in this case study, we will look at how we helped not just a customer, but an entire community combat theft with one of our marking solutions.
Marking Application: Marking Trailer Frames
The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) was developing a new crime prevention program in Spartanburg County, South Carolina where trailer theft is a major problem. Trailers are not legally required to be registered in South Carolina and without license plates or any other form of identification, stolen trailers can be difficult to identify and recover.
The NICB wanted to equip the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office with a handheld marking device to mark trailer frames and other equipment with a VIN-like number to aid in stolen trailer recovery and deter theft altogether.
Learn more about the application and the need for trailer theft prevention in their report on the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office Trailer Identification Project.
Part Material
Trailer frames are typically made of steel and aluminum.
Application Requirements
This application had three requirements:
- The marking machine needed to be handheld.
- The marking machine had to be capable of marking aluminum, steel, and possibly other metals.
- The machine needed a marking field wide enough to create a 12-character mark in a single line.
Trailer Frame Marking solution
We determined a pin marker was the best marking technology for this application. They can make deep, permanent marks quickly in steel, aluminum, and many other metals. Handheld options are available and are perfect for parts that are too big to mark in a column-mounted pin marker.
Marking Machine
The Styliner® Super Stinger® met all the application requirements. It can make clean, deep, permanent marks in both aluminum and steel. At around five pounds and with a communication cable of 20 feet, the Super Stinger is portable and easy-to-hold during the marking process.
Like all our other pin marking machines, the Super Stinger comes with our StyleWrite pin marking software. In addition to being intuitive and easy to use, StyleWrite features a serialization option which makes the marking process for this application even simpler and faster.