Patent ID: 8272794

Claim:
A material marking system for use with a computer numerical controlled (CNC) system having a gantry, a carriage, and a CNC controller, the material marking system comprising: a sequence controller connected to the CNC controller, said sequence controller is associated with a computer readable medium; a human machine interface (HMI) device connected to said sequence controller; a marker controller connected to said sequence controller; a lifter assembly connected to said sequence controller; a marker assembly mountable to the carriage and having a marker, said marker assembly connected to said lifter assembly and connected to said marker controller; and a program embodied in said computer readable medium, said program operable to cause said sequence controller to: receive a marking start command from the CNC controller; receive marking information in a first format from the CNC controller; parse said marking information for at least one predetermined variable string; replace at least one of any detected predetermined variable strings in said marking information with at least one replacement string retrieved from said HMI device; selectively reformat said marking information into a second format readable by said marker controller; and send said selectively reformatted marking information to said marker controller.