GHS Drum Label Rolls

Do you need to print GHS drum labels in a roll to place them on an applicator?  While visiting Label Expo, http://www.labelexpo-americas.com/,  I saw the best option currently available for producing GHS drum labels on a roll; the GP-C831 with a winder solution from Labelmate.

Watch the video of this solution running on my YouTube channel.

I asked Stuart Ripplinger of Labelmate,  http://labelmateusa.com/#&panel1-1, the manufacturer of this new solution, why this system works better than standard winders for the GP-C831.  According to Stuart, “the new ELU Loop Unwinders and ELR Loop Rewinders have been created for very sensitive printers; that do not work well with the tension that exists between the printer and the Rewinder/Unwinder. When even the weight of a dancer arm resting on the material is too much, you may now use the ELU/ELR units for no tension whatsoever on the printer." 

Stuart continues, "the tensioning is done by creating a “lazy loop” of material that forms between the printer and the Rewinder/Unwinder. When using the ELR/ELU units without a WRE weighted roller, the rewound roll will tend to be quite loose. Therefore, the WRE weighted roller can be used in the trough of the loop to add tension on the material so that the rewound roll is not loose.”

As you can see in the picture and video, I asked Stuart if the tractor feed on either side of the labels affected the winders.  Stuart said, “tractor feed holes on the liner makes no difference when rewinding/unwinding with this system.  In addition, ELU/ELR units are able to rewind/unwind perforated liners without any problems.”  In some situations, I can imagine having perforations on liners, and still wanting to rewind, may be of interest.

In addition, Labelmate showed a complete winding system for smaller labels (up to 4.25”) on the TM-C3500.  You can see the winders for this printer running here: 

Stuart said, “The system seen in the video is the complete solution that was manufactured specifically for the TM-C3500 and is supplied with a custom baseplate. The larger units manufactured for use with the GP-C831 printer function the same way, but no baseplate is supplied.”

Alternatives do exist to this system, including laser printers from QLS, the Vivo (http://www.quicklabel.com/products-services/label-printers/color/vivo-touch.html),  from iSys (http://www.isys-label.com/products/edge-850/index.html), and from Neuralog (http://www.neuralog.com/pages/NeuraLabel-Printer.html).  All of these printers are sheet-fed laser or LED printers converted to continuous, roll-fed label printers.  As the print engines were designed as sheet fed, you always waste labels at the end of each print job.  Recently, I visited a company that lost 2, 14” labels at the start of a print job; plus an additional 2, 14” labels at the end of each print job.  Wasting 4 large labels on every print job really costs a lot of money.

In addition, these printers use toner, which typically costs significantly more, up to 75% more, than ink.  See my earlier post on the cost of color label printers:  http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2013/12/trust-me.html 

With the cost of wasting labels and the incremental cost of toner, I don’t recommend these printers for applications involving rewinding GHS drum labels.

If you found this post from Label Expo of interest, you may want to review my recent post on the new TM-C7500 printer:  http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2014/09/first-review-tm-c7500-at-label-expo.html

And on my blog, you’ll find lots of posts involving GHS.  Check them out here: http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/

If you need a means to produce GHS labels for your drums, contact us to learn more about this winding solution.  We’ll make your move to printing color labels on-demand easy.

Guy Mikel

855-962-7670

info@colorlabelsolutions.com

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