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USB label printer recommendations


Stuart91

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So, now that the dust has settled after the Christmas rush, one of the things that we're looking to do to neaten up hire stock is adding labels to briefcases. We already have tour labels that indicate the job and location, what I'm wanting to do is add a printed adhesive label, perhaps roughly the size of a business card, with a list of the usual contents. (Things like mains lead, user manual, 5-3 pin DMX adaptor) This will be neater than scrawled Sharpie, and hopefully a bit more durable.

 

We already own a Rhino handheld printer. It's OK for occasional bits and pieces but it can only print one line of text at a time so is going to be a bit fiddly for this job. Plus typing on their stupid keyboard is annoyingly time consuming.

 

The labels need to have fairly aggressive adhesive and be reasonably robust. Other than that, we're fairly flexible. I'd prefer something that hooks up to a computer via USB so we can use a proper QWERTY keyboard and save templates etc. This is going to be a one-off process for each item of hire kit, so the cost of the labels themselves isn't a massive problem, we are going to be running of maybe a couple of hundred rather than thousands.

 

I'm wondering if something like this might do the trick but I've no direct experience of these sorts of machines, and I have no idea if the labels would stand up to life in a production environment. Or is there anything cheaper that would do as good a job?

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We use a5 laminates and 12mm tesa from le mark (like double sided gaff)

 

The template is a simple excel file with logo, includes the easyjob info (item number, size, weight) and the contence. Some list condition of items. We also have a checklist on it of what should be done when its back in, laptops and I pads get wiped and charged etc.

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I'm wondering if something like this might do the trick...

 

Thermal labels tend to fade after a while.

 

 

If you have a laser printer, Avery do durable metallised foil laser labels which are very robust.

+1, and, IIRC, white vinyl as well. I've used them to labels units which get chucked in flightcase and they seem to survive well.

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If you have a laser printer, Avery do durable metallised foil laser labels which are very robust.

 

That certainly sounds like a plan, and cheap to try out.

 

Will any common or garden laser printer work for these? We have a few kicking around the office but none that are particularly high end.

 

My only other complaint about sheets of labels is that any time we've tried them before (for mailshots etc.) we've struggled to get the layout lining up correctly. I have vague memories of using specialised label software on a Mac about 5-6 yrs ago, and that worked well for entire sheets of labels, e.g. a long run of address labels for a mailshot. Not sure how well it'll work for individual labels that will be getting run off as and when.

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If you have a laser printer, Avery do durable metallised foil laser labels which are very robust.

 

Will any common or garden laser printer work for these? We have a few kicking around the office but none that are particularly high end.

 

 

They have worked on every laser I have tried and are practically indestructible.

 

However I am not sure if you can put the sheets through the laser multiple times, I didn't realise you wanted to do that. I think the fuser does something to the surface of the label to seal in the toner, so you might find that on a 2nd pass through they don't work. I have always printed a whole sheet in one go.

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  • 1 year later...

However I am not sure if you can put the sheets through the laser multiple times, I didn't realise you wanted to do that

I'd be very wary of running ANY labels through a laser if you've peeled some off. The glue can squeeze out where the missing labels are, and get on the drum. Much to the disgust of the printer repairer (me).
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We use 50x32mm metalised polyester lables with a thermal transfer label printer - the advantage is it can be printed on in either our asset label printer or one of our test-tag machines printer (our newer tag printers are portable bluetooth ones - theoretically it would work but we would need to re-roll the labels onto a smaller spindle and only do a few at a time).
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