case study

How to meet the challenge of marking railway parts with multiple shapes and dimensions?

Industrial objectives

The customer needed to address several major challenges:

• Ensure permanent traceability of steel, aluminum, and stainless steel parts
• Adapt to a wide variety of formats. The highly heterogeneous dimensions of the parts required a flexible solution not limited to a single fixture or template
• Have equipment that could be used both as a mobile solution and as a fixed workstation

The diversity of parts to be marked is one of the main challenges of the application. Most components are flat parts such as plates, sheets, reinforcements, or gussets, generally measuring between 120 and 600 mm in length, 30 to 220 mm in width, and 5 to 12 mm in thickness.

A smaller portion consists of small mechanical parts such as fittings, shims, bushings, or brackets, with dimensions ranging from 50 to 240 mm in length, 14 to 120 mm in width, and up to 80 mm in height.

Finally, some parts have much larger dimensions — tubes, rails, profiles, or frames — which can reach up to 1,800 mm in length, 500 mm in width, and 250 mm in height.

This wide range of formats requires a marking solution flexible enough to adapt to parts ranging from small components to large structural elements.

Overview of the diversity of parts to be marked:

Technical challenge

Several technical constraints had to be taken into account:

• Readability after welding operations. The marking had to remain identifiable even after thermal interventions that could alter the surface
• Need for mobility in certain areas. Some parts could not be moved to a fixed station, making portability essential
• Requirement for a secure workstation for small parts
• Possibility of later integrating 2D marking (QR code) and ensuring compatibility with future data structuring according to GS1 standards (GTIN, application identifiers, serialization, etc.)

The system needed to be flexible enough to cover three scenarios:

1. Direct marking on large parts in the workshop
2. Ergonomic fixed workstation
3. Secure marking of small parts in an enclosure

SIC MARKING Solution

To meet all these constraints, the following configuration was selected:

It is based on an L-MOOV 30W equipped with a 60 x 25 mm marking head as well as a defocused head dedicated to stainless steel, providing the ability to adapt marking to different materials and required contrast levels.

The solution also includes the SIC FACTORY AUTOMATION software, designed to simplify, secure, and automate industrial marking operations.

The equipment is mounted on a mobile cart and can be used in a fixed workstation with a cantilever and balancer setup, or in a mobile configuration without complex modifications. This modularity enhances both ergonomics and operational performance.

Finally, a protective enclosure sized according to the final parts completes the system to ensure secure marking, particularly for small components.

The solution thus offers three modes of operation:

• A fixed workstation for recurring volumes
• Mobile operation for large parts or hard-to-reach areas
• An enclosure mode for secure marking of very small parts in a closed station

Implementation and Results

The deployed solution enables:

• Permanent and readable marking on steel, aluminum, and stainless steel
• Better stock organization thanks to immediate part identification
• Reduced risk of errors during maintenance operations
• A scalable solution ready for QR code integration
• Total flexibility for different part dimensions

Most flat parts (88%) can be marked directly with the portable head, optimizing productivity. Small parts are secured in the dedicated enclosure, ensuring compliance and operator comfort. Very large parts can be marked without dimensional constraints thanks to the system’s mobility.

Conclusion

Thanks to a modular configuration combining mobility, safety, and power adapted to different materials, the workshop now has a reliable and scalable solution for traceability of its railway maintenance parts.

The implemented solution ensures more reliable maintenance operations and secure inventory management.

This project illustrates the capability of the portable L-MOOV laser to perfectly adapt to demanding industrial applications and the specific constraints of the railway sector.