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Thursday, December 5, 2013

Chemical With No Name

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.


GHS-Label

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=696After using the Install Navi Utility, the printers communicated correctly. 

According to the Director, “label printing is going well.  We use Hazox (http://exphazox.com/hazox/ as our software application to print the variable SDS and GHS information.  Although we have a lot of information to fit on a little area, the labels are working out.”


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
855-962-7670
www.colorlabelsolutions.com
#GHSlabels


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