Marking Time: General Industry Coverage

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END USER: Focus: HOPE’s Center for Advanced Technologies, www.focushope.edu, (313) 494-5500. CHALLENGE: Accurately mark machined parts. SOLUTION: A flexible laser marking system. SOLUTION PROVIDER: Columbia Marking Tools, (586) 949-8400, www.columbiamt.com

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The manufacturing arm of a Detroit nonprofit civil and human rights organization is employing a laser marking system to identify and code its production, prototype and R&D parts.

Focus: HOPE was founded in 1968 by Detroit community leaders intent on healing the wounds from the city’s 1967 riots while addressing some of the issues that spawned them. The group’s efforts range from establishing supplemental food programs to creating educational opportunities that help people learn skills and enter the economic mainstream.

Among those opportunities is the Machinist Training Institute. As an extension of those training programs, Focus: HOPE launched a manufacturing operation in 1982. Then, to enable students to earn degrees through local universities, the organization formed a coalition in 1989 with universities and manufacturers called the Center for Advanced Technologies (CAT). Degree candidates gain real-world experience in Focus: HOPE Manufacturing, which makes parts for customers, including the U.S. military, and conducts manufacturing process R&D.

Courtesy of Focus: HOPE

On the Focus: HOPE shop floor, Engineering Technician Dennis Simmons loads friction stir-welding test specimens into the Columbia Marking Tools U-15 EcoMark laser marking system.

Recently, Bruce O’Neill, CAT project manager, contacted Columbia Marking Tools, Chesterfield Township, Mich., seeking a way to mark metal and plastic parts with alphanumeric characters, bar codes, logos and other graphics.