Although
Marketing from the new owners of my customer would not allow me to use their
name, I decided to post a slightly altered version. With the requirement to produce GHS labels
coming, I hope you find this version of the post of value.
As a global manufacturer of specialty chemicals and gasses, my customer
needed to comply with the Global Harmonized System of Classification and
Labeling of Chemicals, commonly referred to as GHS. If you have not heard of this new set of
requirements, you may want to read my earlier post: http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-h-is-ghs-opportunity.html.
All companies who manufacture chemicals will need to comply with these
new requirements by June 1st, 2015 according to OSHA: https://www.osha.gov/dsg/hazcom/HCSFactsheet.html.
For companies that ship chemicals by water, they’ll need to comply with
the British Marine Standard, BS5609.
Here is a summary of these set of requirements from an earlier
post: http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2012/03/bs5609-is-no-bs.html.
I first contacted my chemical company prospect when they wanted to test
labels printed with ink from the GP-C831 color label printer. You may find my largest read post on this
printer of interest: http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2012/10/gp-c831.html.
According
to Information Systems Director at my customer, “We needed to make sure the
labels would meet our set of requirements.
After receiving the printed labels, we placed them on packages and
placed them outdoors to see how they would survive the elements. After several months, the labels looked good.”
Once
the tests showed the label meet their durability requirements, the specialty
chemical company had to decide which printer to purchase. Although initially interested in the GP-C831,
the Director stated, “The TM-C3500 may be a better fit for us. But we need to make sure we can get the
Kimdura label media in 4” widths”. I
responded, “The TM-C3500 has a max print
width of 4.4”. If your labels are less than this width, the TM-C3500
would work better for you. With the build-in cutter, you can use
continuous labels and cut to a variable length. So some labels can be 6”;
others 8”. You can change easily on the fly and automatically.
Also, the printer uses exactly the same ink as the GP-C831; so the Kimdura
works the same in the TM-C3500.”
Based
on their requirements, the chemical company purchased several TM-C3500’s for
their plants as well as purchased continuous Kimdura poly labels. During the initial install of these printers,
the company did have an issue getting the printers to work correctly. The “Printer Settings” application did not communicate
to the printer correctly. You can find
the printer settings on the Maintenance & Utilities tab:
This utility configures all settings in the printer. To fix this communication problem, we
reinstalled the driver using the Epson Install Navi Utility, which is an
application to set up the printer, including setting up Ethernet
connectivity. You can find this Utility
on the Tech Resource page for the TM-C3500 here: https://pos.epson.com/developers/techresdetails.htm?productpk=696. After
using the Install Navi Utility, the printers communicated correctly.
Although
disappointing that I could not use the name of my specialty chemical company
customer, I hope you found this information of value. If you need to meet the GHS requirements like
this specialty chemical company, contact Color Label Solutions. We’ll provide you with the best solution to
meet the GHS requirements to print color labels on-demand.
Guy
Mikel
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