Patent ID: 7577596

Claim:
An apparatus for marking items in a production line, the apparatus comprising: a marker for marking an item; a data-storage medium having stored thereon expiration information indicative of an expiration date that corresponds to a production-date range; and a processor in data communication with the marker and with the data storage medium, the processor being configured to receive production-date information associated with an item, to identify a production-date range corresponding to the production-date information; to retrieve from the data-storage medium, expiration-date information that corresponds to the production-date information and the production-date range, and to cause the marker to mark the item with a mark representative of the expiration-date information; wherein the production-date range spans a plurality of production dates; and wherein retrieving expiration-date information comprises accessing a calendar table containing, for each of a plurality of production-date ranges, an expiration date corresponding to the production-date range.