RING-METAL SEAL 9F3788 - Caterpillar

In recent years, international trade in counterfeit goods has risen dramatically. Once thought to be limited to apparel and luxury goods, counterfeiting now plagues manufacturers of drugs, computers, electronic equipment and heavy equipment. Recent reports state U.S. Customs has identified sources of counterfeit goods from 43 different countries, including the U.S. Within the heavy equipment parts category, the counterfeits tend to be fast-moving, low-cost parts, particularly engine parts such as filters, pistons, bearings, seals and fuel injection nozzles. Counterfeiting offers immense profits to the counterfeiter. Counterfeit parts are labeled as genuine and the customer believes they are genuine; however, in reality they are inferior and fraudulent.
To act as a deterrent for counterfeiting Caterpillar parts, Caterpillar has developed a parts label that is extremely difficult to counterfeit. This label will be applied to both loose items and cartons. It contains several sophisticated counterfeit deterrent technologies, one of which is the ability for field verification. For field verification a small area of the label contains a message code. A plastic decoder, less than the thickness of a pack of matches and approximately the size of a package of cigarettes, is used to decode the message. If counterfeit is still suspect after field verification of the label, trained personnel are available for further analysis utilizing the other technologies incorporated into the label and/or actual inspection of the part itself.
The new label includes part number, part description, quantity, and the Caterpillar Country of Origin Code These items are always printed in the same location on the label with an area for miscellaneous information. Future versions of the label will bar code the critical information along with increasing its print size.
If you suspect a part is counterfeit, contact the Caterpillar Inc. Patent Department immediately. Retain all pertinent items including the part, the label, and all packaging materials.
Parts label. On some components, the product itself will also have a date code and/or a supplier code that could be more helpful.