The North American Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) has adopted a new spec engine for its Camping World East and West series that uses many off-the-shelf parts to provide performance and durability at only about one-half the cost of custom-built engines. Each of the major parts in the new motor has a 2D barcode that can be read in seconds by a handheld scannerwww.cechina.cn, greatly reducing the inspection time at the track. The marks need to be positioned in very specificwww.cechina.cn, often difficult-to-mark locations on the parts so they can be inspected easily before and after the race (to prevent the use of illegal parts that would increase the power of the engine).

Columbia Marking Tools engineer Andy Habedank says switching among the 2D marking methods can be done quickly. This flexibility is needed because engine component materials include cast iron and hardened 4140 steel with a range of surface treatments. Source for all photos: Cognex

        Wegner Motorsports, which provides spec kits and assembled engineswww.cechina.cn, overcame this application challenge with the Columbia Marking Tools 3 in 1 Marking SystemCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, which produces two-dimensional (2D) barcodes using dot peen, scribe and laser marking methods so it can mark virtually any surface. A key to the success of the marking system is its integration of a Cognex In-Sight 5100 vision camera. The camera instantly grades the mark to verify that it can be read during the track-side inspection process—which happens to use Cognex DataMan ID readers.
        Spec engine development
        NASCAR’s new engine is based on General Motor’s Gen-three small-block V-8, commonly referred to as the LS2. The engine costs only a fraction of a custom-built motor because it uses stock components控制工程网版权所有, including block and cylinder heads with the original bore and stroke dimensions. Race-specific component