[NHCOLL-L:2778] Printing Wet-collection Specimen Labels

[Jeff Williams]

Given the problems we have been having at the NMNH with our supplier of the
"non-bleeding" ethanol resistant inked ribbons, we started looking at the
thermal transfer printers (see Andrew Bentley's article in the SPNHC Sept
2004 newsletter).  Our problem was that we have a huge supply of rolls (6
inches wide by 1500 ft long)  of the Byron Weston Resistall paper and
wanted
to continue using it (I know it is acidic, but we have a lot of it!). 
Kris
Murphy worked with the Datamax testing lab in Florida to test the
different
kinds of ribbons and they found one that works pretty well on the
resistall
paper.  We have been testing the paper/ribbon combinations for only about
5
months, but we found a ribbon (PGR+) that seems to work well.  
 
Last month, we purchased a Datamax W-6308  printer (this model handles our
6 inch wide paper) and have been using the Premium grade plus wax/resin
ribbon with our resistall paper.  The pure resin ribbon yielded a poor
print
quality on the resistall paper.  The wax ribbon print rubs off fairly
easily
after soaking in ethanol.
 
We have been extremely happy with the new printing system.  It took some
work to figure out that the default setting coded in the printer's memory
is
to have the label rotation setting "disabled."  Once the label rotation
setting was "enabled," we were able to use continuous printing of our
variable length labels.  We are using a heat setting of 19 and a 2 inch
per
second print speed.  The print on the labels looks great and holds up
during
routine handling.  If you rub the wet printed label hard enough and long
enough, the print will rub off (perhaps it is actually the top of the
paper
that is being rubbed off?).  We use a separate impression-numbered catalog
tag in each jar as a backup, so even if all the print rubbed off, we would
not lose the
data.  During all routine shipping (with specimens) and handling of the
labels, the print holds up very well.
 
I just thought I would share this with anyone holding stocks of resistall
paper, but thinking about switching to thermal printing of their wet
labels.
 
--Jeff
 
 
 
Note new phone number and email address.
*********************************************
Jeffrey T. Williams, Ph.D.
Division of Fishes-NHB-MRC-159
PO Box 37012
Washington,  DC 20013-7012
 
email:  williajt at si.edu   
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/vert/jtw.html 
Fax: 413-618-1138 or 202-357-2986  
Phone: 202-633-1223
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