Patent ID: 8763894

Claim:
A method for generating tracing information for gas cylinders comprising a metal cylinder body, manufactured through the steps of: providing an unrefined metal piece; subjecting the unrefined metal piece to: A) one or more heat treatment steps to modify the mechanical characteristics of the piece and, B) one or more deformation steps to modify the shape of the piece, so as to obtain the cylinder body with the desired shape and material characteristics, subjecting the unrefined piece or the cylinder body obtained from it to at least one control step for identifying pieces whose characteristics do not correspond to predetermined target characteristics, in which said method further comprises the steps of: equipping the unrefined metal piece, before the heat treatment steps and deformation steps, with a permanent individual marking having an encoding field with areas in bas-relief in said unrefined metal piece, that comprises an identification code of the single piece and that permanently identifies the single unrefined metal piece and the single cylinder body obtained from it during the manufacture of the gas cylinder, reading the individual marking applied to the unrefined piece and storing the identification code read in a database, identifying, during at least one of the heat treatment steps and deformation steps or during said control step, the identification code of the piece or of the cylinder body obtained from it by reading the individual marking and associating one or more process parameters of said heat treatment step or deformation step or a result of said control step with said identification code, and storing said process parameters of said heat treatment step or deformation step or said result of said control step and the association with said read identification code in the database.