A system for automatically identifying a blade that is connected to a hand piece based on data transmitted from the blade to the hand piece. The blade is provided with a first electronic coupler that communicates with a second electronic coupled positioned in the hand piece such that data related to the blade is transmitted to the hand piece and controllers/computers and in the case of reusable blades, updated data is transmitted to the blade to be saved in a memory coupled to the first electronic coupler. The coupling system can be either a hard wired or wireless coupling between the blade and the hand piece.