[Nhcoll-l] FW: [HERBARIA] polypropylene annotation labels?

[Dirk Neumann]

Hi Dorothy,

one basic consideration surely is stability of plastics (no matter which 
type of plastic) in the long run (speaking in decades and in dependence 
of storage conditions). We do know that (high quality archival) paper is 
durable even over centuries, what we also know is that (for dry 
collections) laser printing (=melting of pigments into fibre texture of 
the slightly rough archival paper surface) is a very durable printing 
method, and that the combination produces (again - for dry collections) 
very reasonable results. "Printing" is always the combination of 
printing medium and printing method, and thus label issues in general 
are always related to either bad printing medium quality (e.g. poor 
paper quality) or improper printing methods (based on environment & medium).

For thermal transfer printing, my impression is that we are / have been 
testing various options at the moment, but we don't know what the result 
is once we are old, grey and retired ... ;-)

I don't know if there are any "archival" ISO-standards for thermal 
transfer printing, but any ribbon based printing (as far as I know, but 
my knowledge might be limited here) is a resin-coating method rather 
then imprinting _into_ the medium. Even though polypropylene is one of 
the more stable plastics, polymer chains tend to crack down based on the 
environmental conditions. Paper consists of more then 30 chemicals, 
among them acids and formaldehydes used in paper production which might 
trigger addition/condensation reactions which could potentially crack 
down polymer-chains and thus - in the long run - the label and/or its 
coating. I would use such a labelling method only if the settings are 
clear (= are there any potential chemical issues arising from the 
herbarium sheets that could negatively affect labels?).

Hope this gives some guidance, but maybe I am too sceptical and there is 
more specific experience from botany collections out there ?

All the best
Dirk



Am 11.07.2014 17:36, schrieb Sweeney, Patrick:
> Posted on behalf of a colleagueŠ
>
> On 7/10/14 9:45 AM, "Dorothy J. Allard" <djallard at uvm.edu> wrote:
>
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> We are looking for a print-on-demand (printing one label at a time)
>> method of annotating herbarium sheets. Can anyone share their
>> experience with thermal transfer label printers (_not_ direct thermal)
>> using wax resin ribbons and polypropylene labels? I am particularly
>> interested in the community's opinion on the likelihood that such
>> labels will be readable for the long term and will not break down.
>>
>> We are considering the purchase of a Zebra GC420t printer, wax/resin
>> ribbons and polypropylene labels.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> -- 
>> Dorothy J. Allard, Ph.D.
>> Assistant Curator and Virtual Herbarium Coordinator
>> Pringle Herbarium
>> Torrey Hall, 27 Colchester Ave.
>> Burlington, VT 05405
>> (802)656-3221
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-- 
Dirk Neumann

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Fax: 089 / 8107-300
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---------

Dirk Neumann

Tel: +49-89-8107-111
Fax: +49-89-8107-300
email: Dirk.Neumann(a)zsm.mwn.de

postal address:

Bavarian Natural History Collections
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