UID labels are basically a marking methodology initiated by the Department of Defense (DoD) to keep track on all defense related tangible items throughout their whole lifecycles. Those items which include the Government Furnished Property (GFP) as well as the personal property issued on or after Jan. 1, 2004 are mandated to have UID label marking on them, as per the DoD mandate. The DoD has instructed all item supplying contractors to fill the registration for UID marking by May 2006 and has set a target of completing UID label marking by Dec 31, 2010 on all tangible as well as embedded items. For the initial period, 80% of the UID markings will be on nameplates or labels and only 20% will be on direct part marking method.

The UID labels ought to be non-removable, chemical resistant, fade resistant, and scratch resistant as they are used for permanent item identification and marking process. Also they need to be legible as they contain detailed info about the affixed items. There are different types of materials used for UID labels. Polyester, polyimide and brushed aluminum foil are some of the most frequently used UID labels materials under normal circumstances. For harsh climatic endurance, dot peening and laser etching methods are applied onto the UID labels.

Permanent UID labels are mandatory as per Mil-Std 130 standard. Mil-Std 130M Section 5.2.7.2.1 clearly states that marks that are acceptable as per the requirements for printing on label material in 5.2.7.2.2 shall be acceptable or alternately see appropriate tables in SAE AS9132 (the Aerospace Industry Marking Standard) for quality requirements.

Requirement criteria for UID Labels

The Department of Defense has clearly specified which items are required to have UID labels on them. As per the DoD mandate, Items, whose unit acquisition cost is $5000 or more , are serially managed, are mission essential and also all embedded items that require permanent identification are mandated to use UID labels.

The designs of basic UID labels have been mandated by the U.S. Government materiel purchases. To facilitate the government agencies for easy identification of government furnished assets, the DoD has mandated the UID labels to be carry info in 2dimensional data matrix barcodes and plain texts format. This 2-D Data Matrix marking method is compatible with virtually all marking techniques.

UID labels have two parts namely Construct #1 and Construct #2 which contain the detail product info of items. Both these Constructs follow MIL-STD 130 ATA 2000 compliant UID labels. Information such as serialized item no, part no, item description should be included in Construct #1 and info about serial no, original part number, lot number or batch number especially for embedded items should be included in Construct #2.

An item’s nature, its characteristics, operational environment and even the maintenance procedures are some of the initial factors which determine the marking method of UID labels. Manufacturer’s requirements, approaching methods and technical knowledge about parts marking also determine UID label marking capability.

Using UID labels has several advantages. It’s easy to keep track of the equipment availability when items will be labeled with unique identification numbers. Standards of Item acquisition, deployment and repair will be improvised through the UID labels. Asset management costs can also be reduced as counterfeiting of items will be stopped. Hence overall operational productivity will be improved through the UID labels.