subject: Labelling Gun Inks: Some Uses And Applications Explained [print this page] Labelling gun ink is not only for elementary printing uses. Contemporary chemical engineering allows for complex chemical nuances to be incorporated into the hand-held label gun ink. This enables a far greater range of applications. What business applications have stimulated such developments?
With some contemplation, you could realise just how many applications and uses there are for label guns. Label guns can clearly be used for tagging items in the retail. Notwithstanding, there are uses in business routines that make these inexpensive devices ideal for. Managed quality control is imperative in food production so labelling guns can be utilised to identify sell by dates, production batch or production technician or variety information.
The ink may pass on further information over and above the information that is printed on the label. If a particular colour of ink is used, this can convey specific information such as month of the year of production or processing. So both label gun ink and label materials can be used to convey on this information as part of a system. The use of thermo-chromatic ink can add another variable for the passing of data on the label. It is possible to have an ink that oxidises at a certain temperature or temperature range, to indicate a particular temperature has been reached. In the case of dental tools, Positive ID Ltd have found a solution to the new UK sterilization rules for dental practices (Decontamination Health Technical Memorandum 01-05: Decontamination in primary care dental practices - or HTM01-05) coming into force in September 2010.
Before being placed in the sterilization autoclave, the labels are stuck to dental utensils. Using a standard production date and expiry date two line hand-held labelling gun, the label can indicate the necessary information for the doctor. Heat-sensitive ink that changes colour at the appropriate temperature is printed on the label in between the two sterilization and expiry dates. This shows that the desired heat has been reached.
The ink suppliers that the likes of labelling and label gun suppliers like Positive ID use, can produce thermo-chromatic dyes that will indicate at virtually any temperature. Label material and label gum restrict the temperatures at which this heat-sensitive ink works.
