Describe all marking locations
Photograph the overall product and individual marked areas, preserving their positions on the object. Record packaging and inserts separately. Manually transcribed characters may contain errors, so it is best to accompany a textual transcription with the source images.
Establish the connection with documents
For each marking, state where it appears in a delivery note, product passport or warranty document. If the packaging was replaced, the casing repaired or parts transferred between products, disclose these circumstances. They do not automatically establish the cause of the differences, but they affect the hypotheses to be checked.
Preserve the surface without treatment
An attempt to make a number more legible with an abrasive, solvent or mechanical intervention may alter the features being examined. The feasibility and method of examination are agreed after a preliminary assessment. The question of signs of alteration is separated from the question of whether a document relates to a particular object.
What to prepare
- The product and packaging with all markings preserved.
- Photographs of the overall appearance and each marked area.
- Product passport, delivery note and repair documents.
- Information about replacement of parts and changes in configuration.
- A table of identifiers that does not confuse the product code and serial number.
What to bear in mind
A photograph may help select a task, but does not always allow the application method to be examined or lost markings to be restored. Treating the surface yourself is undesirable.
Outcome of preliminary preparation
Organising the information helps determine whether there is a real contradiction between identifiers and which questions require marking examination and which require checking the origin of documents.
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