Great Idea-GHS Tags For Small Packages

Delta Kits (deltakits.com) windshield repair and headlight restoration products are used by over 10,000 customers in more than 75 countries.  Their  industry leading tools, resins, and equipment are preferred by professional windshield repair and headlight restoration technicians worldwide and are highly respected for quality, durability, and ease of use. The Delta Kits team of award winning windshield repair experts has almost 70 years combined experience as educators, technicians, and leaders in the industry — setting a standard of excellence for auto glass repair.

DELTA Kits Example GHS Label

As with most companies in the chemical and adhesive industries, Delta Kits needed to comply with the international Global Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) requirements, implemented in the United States by OSHA (osha.gov/dsg/hazcom/ghs) with the deadline date of June, 2015 (December, 2015 for distributors) osha.gov/dsg/hazcom/HCSFactsheet. David Patterson, Warehouse Manager, for Delta Kits contacted us after a referral from one of our other customers.

One of the label needs David had was to meet dual language requirements for GHS in Canada especially on small bottles: deltakits.com/shopping/resins/product/87-30290-premium-pit-resin-7-ml-plastic-bottle or syringes deltakits.com/shopping/resins/product/81-30003-magnibond-resin-one-shot-applicator-pkg-of-5.   Based on this requirement, David asked, “Does the TM-C3500 printer have the ability to print on card stock like bottle neckers?” David had the idea of placing slits in a necker to enable the tag to slip over a bottle or around a syringe.  Here is his first draft design of a 4″ x 1.5″ necker.

David’s idea was to use the neckar to add more area for information to meet the GHS requirements for small containers.  Plus, he could use the neckars as a means to print in dual languages for shipping; that would make it easy to remove once the product arrived in country.  This idea sounded perfect for many of our customers with small containers.

Based on David’s question, my response was, “Yes; however, it needs to be inkjet coated stock.  If you send me exactly the dimensions (and volumes) of your tag, I can get you a quote.  Once you get the TM-C3500 printer, you can try your existing stock.  But more than likely it will not work as thermal transfer card stock is coated; preventing the ink from drying.  If you have a plain paper tag stock, it may work; but the ink may spread slightly.“

Based on our discussion, David decided to purchase durable 8 mil poly tags with this initial design:

GHS Tag Design

We decided to place slits in the hole; and leave the chad.  We needed to leave the chad as the C3500 uses a vacuum to hold the paper to the printhead.  With a hole, the printer could produce bad print quality or will not work.

When David received the tags, they printed; but not great.   According to David, “I ran a few tests on the tags. The print did not look so good. I shut off the air to the area of the hole by closing the shutters on the inside of the front door of the printer. It helped a little but still did print as well as our labels. Printing came out blurred.“

GHS Bottle Tags

According to David, the blurred print was worse using a PDF.  Based on the feedback, we decided the hole was causing the issue; especially given the stiffer matte poly; and opted to try a softer, more conformable material.

Once produced, David again tried this material but found a different issue.  The tag would not read the black mark and skipped tags; or would not read the blackmark at all.

GHS Bottle Tags

With the new feedback, the plant went to work to determine what was causing the issue.  It was soon discovered that the tags would work, no problem, if the tags were rewound in the opposite direction.

And now Dave is printing GHS tags that look great!

GHS Tags

David Patterson of Delta Kits had a great idea to solve the issue of adding a lot of information to labels for very small containers. If you have small bottles or syringes that need to meet the GHS requirements, contact us about using tags or neckars to provide more real estate for information.  We can help.

Posted at 7:19 AM
Guy Mikel
855-962-7670
info@colorlabelsolutions.com