METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRACKING UNFINISHED CERAMIC STRUCTURES DURING MANUFACTURE

摘要

A system and method is provided for virtually tracking unfinished ceramic structures moved by a conveyor system through a plurality of manufacturing loops which reliably and accurately preserves both identification and manufacturing information during all steps of manufacture, and in particular during mark-obliterating steps such as firing or contouring. The method includes the steps of loading the marked, unfinished ceramic structure at a selected position on the conveyor system; relaying both the information in the identification mark and the selected position of the unfinished ceramic structure on the conveyor system; conveying the unfinished ceramic structure through at least one mark-obliterating manufacturing step, and identifying the ceramic structure after completion of the mark-obliterating step by relaying and processing information relating to its position on the conveyor system. The ceramic structure is then re-marked with a second mark after completing all mark-obliterating steps of manufacturing, such as firing and contouring. The second mark includes all of the identification and other data carried by the first mark. Both the first and second marks include the combination of a machine-readable and human-readable component, such as the combination of a two-dimensional bar code and an alpha-numeric code.