[Nhcoll-l] Thermal label problems

[Williston, Andrew]

  *   Very interesting Jon. Here's our experience in MCZ Ichthyology:
  *
  *    With a recently printed label, soaked in ethanol for a few minutes, are you able to scratch off ink with your fingernail?
After 7+- years even our oldest labels in ethanol seem to be holding fine and resistant to scratch by fingernail
  *
  *   Printer Make/Model
  *
We use a Datamax DMX-i4308
  *
What are the heat and print speed settings on the printer?
We use print head temperature of 25 with print speed of 2 in/sec

Which ribbon and paper do you use?
We have been using Datamax SDR...as Karsten mentioned a minute ago we are also looking at the SDR-5+ now since its marketed as having the highest chemical resistance (although SDR-A is supposed to have "solvent" resistance and does seem to have worked well for most ethanol collections).
           We've also been using the Alpha Systems polytag stock

Who do you order your supplies from?
         Alpha Systems


          No signs of white threads at all on our end.



Interested in hearing more about this. Seems to me like a lot of collections are generally following Bentley's 2004 Newsletter article and that, combined with everybody's experience since, might be the start of of a good best-practices page for the SPNHC wiki.



-Andy Williston

MCZ Ichthyology

________________________________
From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Jon Fong <jfong at calacademy.org>
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2016 4:03:08 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Thermal label problems

We are having a label printer problem that supposedly no one else has, so I'm asking around to see if it really is only us, or whether that no one else has noticed.

The problem is that we are able to scrape off the ink with a fingernail from our thermal transfer labels after they've been soaked in ethanol for a few minutes. We're using a relatively new Datamax H-4408, with supposedly chemical-resistant resin ribbon, and polyester paper. This shouldn't happen, and I know that we've been able to successfully print labels where we couldn't scratch off the ink. With this printer.  But it keeps recurring, and we don't know whether it's the supplier (Alpha Systems), the manufacturer, our printer (lemon? doubtful, it's the second one), or us. Please answer this quick survey.

  1.  With a recently printed label, soaked in ethanol for a few minutes, are you able to scratch off ink with your fingernail?
  2.  What make/model of printer do you use?
  3.  What are the heat and print speed settings on the printer?
  4.  Which ribbon and paper do you use?
  5.  Who do you order your supplies from?
  6.  We've also had problems with fine white threads coming off the polyester paper and clogging the print head. Anyone else experience this?

Thanks for your time,
Jon

Jon D. Fong
Curatorial Assistant / Programmer
Dept. of Ichthyology
California Academy of Sciences
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