Classification of Mil Spec 130 and UID

Mil spec 130 is the Military Standard Practice document specifying Identification Marking of U.S. Military Property under the Unique Identification policy of the U.S. Department of Defense. The UID policy was adopted by the Department of Defense in July 2003 and has undergone several refinements since. The current version of the military specification Identification Marking of U.S. Military Property is MIL-STD-130N and was released December 17, 2007.

All contractors of and suppliers to the Department of Defense are required to comply with the requirements specified in mil spec 130. This document is available from the U.S. Department of Defense in PDF format on the internet at http://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/pdi/uid/attachments/MIL-STD-130N-20080111.pdf.

Mil spec 130N is a 52-page document providing both general and detailed requirements of UID markings. The topics covered in the General Requirements section of mil spec 130N include: application methods; location, size and content; permanency and legibility; use of identification plates or labels, tags and bands; deleterious effect; abbreviated information; and allowable type or font.

The Detailed Requirements, Notes, Tables and Figures sections of mil spec 130N in combination provide the information required to produce a compliant UID marking. The Detailed Requirements section of mil spec 130N covers in detail the minimum information to be included in the UID marking, industry specific identifiers which are recognized by the Department of Defense as IUID equivalents, the Data Matrix symbol and other machine-readable formats, inclusion of human-readable formats and when human-readable information may be omitted, and the quality of all markings.

The Detailed Requirements section of mil spec 130N also includes specifications to follow when the item is designed and manufactured by the same entity, is designed by one entity and manufactured by another entity, or acquired from a subcontractor by the design entity.

The Notes, Tables and Figures sections of mil spec 130N show the variety of formats and constructs which may be used in conjunction to produce compliant UID markings. Mil spec 130 provides the flexibility of combining the various formats and constructs to provide the appropriate UID marking for each item.

As you can see from this overview of Military Standard mil spec 130, marking UID required items in compliance with mil spec 130 is complicated and it is wise to turn to the experts at ID-Integration for more information.