Matrix marker draws line: counterfeit aircraft parts could be a thing of the past after the US Department of Defense and the Air Transport Association agree to adopt 2D matrix data marking of components. Christopher Sell reports

Engineer, The, May, 2004 by Christopher Sell

THE BATTLE against counterfeit aircraft parts received a boost when the US Department of Defence and the Air Transport Association (ATA) reached a compromise in Washington last month. The agreement will finally standardise the way spare parts are marked with a unique registration or code.

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It has become increasingly necessary to mark and trace components because of the surge in counterfeit parts that followed the growth in global production of aircraft parts in the 1990s. But until now there has been little effort or success in the standardisation of the coding technology or settlement on a universally accepted format for marking and reading parts.

Currently parts are identified with alphanumeric codes, which are entered on to...