Printing Water Proof Labels on Laser Printers

Waterproof Labels for products that are mass produced are usually printed by label converters and supplied to factories on rolls for automatic application onto the products. This is fine for volume products, but what if the products your company makes are low volume or come in many variations? You will find that label printing companies will have minimum run quantities and as a result the cost of product labels could be difficult to justify.

The solution of course is to print labels in house, by buying blank self-adhesive labels you are in control of the label design and the number of labels you print. There are several print technologies to choose from, the most common of which are laser printing and thermal transfer printing.

Thermal transfer printers are monochrome and print onto reels of labels, the ink is carried on a ribbon which is fed over the top of the labels, the ribbon and the labels pass between a roller and a thermal transfer print head. The head consists of thousands of tiny heater elements which fire on and off, if a heater element is on as the labels and ribbon go past then the ink is transferred to the label. Thermal transfer printers produce highly durable functional monochrome labels. Clearly you would need to invest in one of these specialist label printers and buy label design and printing software, if this was your chosen technology.

Companies often overlook their existing laser printers which can also be used to print water proof labels, and can be surprised that sheets of waterproof labels can be easily printed on these machines without the need for special software. Most laser printers have a “labels” setting in their software which is simply turned on in the settings section of the print driver. MS word has a label design section which can be used to set up the labels and the printing process is the same as printing a document. Colour laser printers can be used to produce coloured waterproof labels and companies like Label Planet Ltd are pleased to supply samples so that the feasibility and quality can be checked.

Water proof labels for laser printers come in several different materials and finishes. If your label only needs to be splash proof and wipe able then you should try out gloss paper labels. Gloss paper is much cheaper than polyester labels or polyethylene labels. If your product is used in a bathroom, marine or outdoor environment then you will need solid polyester or polyethylene labels with a marine adhesive (BS5609) and you will need to test them in the application before you buy.

Lastly Inkjets are terrible at producing water proof labels because the ink is water based.