It is a well-known fact that all products today must have marking information about the manufacturer and the product itself. However, when products are manufactured under extreme conditions and temperatures, the labeling process becomes much more complicated. Not all labels can withstand such conditions, and manufacturers spend a lot of time and effort looking for optimal labeling solutions.

Example:
A company manufactures different diameters pipes. During the production process, the pipes are sand-blasted and then placed into a furnace where they are heat-treated at the temperature of up to +350 °С. What happens to labeling materials during such aggressive processing? One of our customers told us that they were initially experimenting with labels using various adhesive bases. Some labels remained attached to the pipes during sand blasting, but melted in the furnace. Others were designed to withstand high temperatures, but simply didn’t make it to the heat-treatment stage as they became unstuck under the pressure of sand. A vicious circle was formed – no matter what label type was used, it was eventually destroyed during one process stage or another, resulting in loss of data about the product and its production cycle. Having failed to find the right label, the manufacturer tried to attach non-adhesive tags to the finished pipes, but they couldn’t come up with a suitable attachment solution, so the search for the perfect label continued.

Solution:
When the customer contacted Specta, our specialists suggested trying the new Specta Foil S/A family of special-purpose labels. Such labels are a rare sight in the labeling product market.

They are capable of withstanding aggressive environment, and their innovative adhesive base ensures adhesion to any surface type, including curved and rough surfaces. The Specta Foil S/A labels remained securely attached to the pipes during all processing stages, preserving all the crucial information. They did not come off during sand blasting, and did not warp as a result of heat treatment in the furnace. Thus, a solution was finally found! The customer found the perfect label, and at the same time was able to settle a number of other issues, such as loss of product information and improper classification of products.

Endurance of Specta Foil S/A Labels

Now let’s take a look at the features of self-adhesive Specta Foil S/A labels that allowed to solve the above issues. Materials play the most important role here. This family of labels features a full-metal structure and uses adhesives that can easily withstand temperatures of up to 300-450 °С.

Specta Foil S/A labels have no shape memory, and can be applied to any type of surface – round, rough or irregular – unlike polymer films that always tend to revert to their initial state. After being securely attached to the product, these unique labels can “go through fire and water”: they are resistant to mechanical wear, organic solvents, acids and alkali, and impacts of sun, rain and snow. One of the important advantages of Specta Foil S/A labels is their special coating that allows applying information either with a marker or a thermal transfer printer.

Excellent strength properties of self-adhesive Specta Foil S/A labels make them indispensable in the manufacturing and automotive industries. Here are just a few applications for such labels:

• Application of barcodes or alphanumeric IDs to cold and hot metal products;
• Labeling of parts under the hood of vehicles;
• Labeling of engine blocks;
• Labeling of electronic components (PCB labels);
• Labeling of parts and blanks with strongly curved or rough surfaces;
• Labeling of chemical products and aggressive substances.

As you can see, the unique properties of these wear-resistant labels can help solve labeling problems in many sectors of heavy and chemical industries and preserve product information even under the most adverse conditions.