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Print Your Own Chemical Labels

What is GHS? And why is it important?

GHS refers to a new global standard for the classification and labelling of chemicals. The new regulations that have been in effect since 1st June 2015 mean that it has become increasingly more difficult to continue to use the traditional thermal transfer monochrome printers for GHS compliance. With the new guidelines, manufacturers of chemicals must utilise GHS-compliant labels for both their newly produced and stocked products. The new labels must adhere to strict standards of durability and resistance to chemicals, fading and smudging. The traditional haz-chem “Chip” symbols cannot be used anymore since under the new standard the number of pictograms has to equal the number of hazards. No blanks or extra pictograms are allowed.

Why print your own GHS labels?

The chemical industry is a multi-billion dollar business. However, with large levels of competition, necessary administration can easily fall through the cracks when outsourced to a third party. Understandably, no company wants to face financial penalties for improper labelling, especially if you are involved in an industry that deals with hazardous chemicals. Additionally, with the proliferation of social media in recent years mistakes can be costly; potentially leading to a permanent tarnishing of your businesses hard earned reputation if not managed appropriately. By making the decision to print your own labels in house, you have a far more granular level of control over the whole compliance process. If there are any regulatory changes, instead of going through a lengthy and costly product recall and reprinting procedure, you can quite simply update your label design in house and reprint your labels both quickly and cost-effectively. This drastically reduces the multi-step process that you would have had to go through traditionally.

On a practical level, the new GHS standards have introduced a greater degree of complexity and potentially added to the cost of the labelling process. Each hazard will now require a unique colour pictogram, and with a different set of hazards for each chemical, will likely lead to a proliferation in the variety of labels that need to be printed. In order to meet this added complexity utilising traditional methods, the amount of colour pre-printed labels that would need to be ordered will increase rapidly resulting in more expensive and inefficient labelling. However, with your own colour printing solution, you can effortlessly print colour labels with variable data for little to no extra overhead.

Colour printers have the added benefit of being able to produce on average up to 4x the resolution of a typical thermal transfer solution. A high resolution label not only looks sharper, but creates a level of trust between the suppler and the customer. A colourful and clear warning label accompanied by a well-designed company logo indicates to your customer that your product is packaged safety, by a responsible manufacturer. It highlights that your company has an attention to detail rather than a reputation for taking shortcuts.

A common complaint among people who are considering whether or not they should implement a colour printing solution in house is the perceived upfront cost involved. Thanks to major advances in both manufacturing processes and printhead technology, the cost of both purchasing and maintaining a solution has drastically reduced allowing both small and large businesses alike to produce quality on-demand GHS compliant colour labels.  

AM Labels - Experts in Colour Label Printers

AM Labels are a UK label manufacturer with over 18 years of industry experience. We have a dedicated team of experts on hand with specific expertise in the chemical industry that can match the most appropriate colour label printer to your specific requirements. If you would like to know more, or request a free sample print of your artwork, then please fill out our enquiry form.

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