Labeling of tubes with wrap-around labels or flag labels
The tubes in the technical industry, on vehicles or devices and plants must be labeled correctly. This way the tubes can be unambiguously assigned at a later time. For installation, repair and troubleshooting the technicians depend on the information on the tube labels. The wrap-around or flag labels stick to elastic tube material and its difficult structured surface. The wrap-around labels will be completely wrapped around the tube. They must provide high printability for the subsequent thermal transfer printing at the customer’s site. The flag labels will be placed around the tube and the long ends will be agglutinated and offer at the same time plenty of space for text, barcodes or symbols.
The main features of tube labeling
- Reliable adhesion to small and middle-sized radii and rounding
- Labels for tubes are very flexible and soft and smooth
- Wrap-around labels do not have a butterfly effect, due to high adhesive power the detaching in the edge area will be prevented
- Complete close fitting of the label to the substrate, thus no intrusion of chemicals, liquids or dirt. Also solutions for outdoor application available.
- Safe adhesion to difficult substrates like elastic materials and structured surfaces
- Also in larger formats easy to apply manually
- High adhesion to structured, low-energy and slightly oily substrates
- High abrasion resistance with suitable thermal transfer ribbons for the thermal transfer printing
- Suitable for standard-compliant labeling like e.g. UL/CSA, ATEX, FMVSS
- Plain and preprinted labels in individual formats and special forms
Functions and advantages – precisely tailored to the safe identification of tubes
The flag labels and wrap-around labels allow for a safe assignment of cables and have the load capacity of type plates. The information must be reliably placed in a small space. The wrap-around cable labels offer high flexibility in regard of material and will be individually adjusted to the customer specifications. This happens with the help of suitable special materials of leading manufacturers, individual die-cutting forms and premium adhesives. The criteria for material choice are the application temperature, flammability requirements, specifications like e.g. UL- or individual automotive standards and the place of application.
The labels can be delivered directly as required in variable amounts, by that the storage and the management of numerous labels may be reduced or dropped.
Our upscale and accurate processing with most modern die-cutting technologies guarantees the highest precision and reliability for the application of tube labels. Thus even labels with adhesives which are difficult to process can be processed mechanically very well, which increases the user efficiency in the long term.
Frequently Asked Questions
Industrial applications of tube labeling
The typical application in the area of tube labels are typing, serialization, encoding, and numeration. These labels can be applied for example in the following branches and areas:
- Automotive manufacturing (OEMs, suppliers)
- Vehicle construction (passenger transport, freight transport, ship and train construction)
- Mechanical engineering (engines, machines, and machine tools)
- Medical products (active, non-active and products with measuring function)
- Technical industry
Individual features of tube labeling
When the wrap-around labels come into action, they be wrapped around the cable completely and, additionally, they can be self‑laminating when made of transparent material. In this case on the transparent label a white area will be conventionally preprinted, on which data or barcodes can be printed on site. The printed end of the label, which contains the actual information, will be adhered first and is protected very well by the wrap with the remaining transparent part. The wrap‑around labels will be placed around the cable and the long ends of the label will be agglutinated and the spaces in individual sizes and forms can be used for the printing on both sides.
Technical key data of our tube labeling
- High flexibility of foil materials
- High-performance materials made of polyvinylchloride (PVC), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyester (PET), and polyolefin foil.
- Temperature resistance from +300° C (572° F) C to -196° C (-320.8° F)
- UV- and weather resistant foils up to max. 15 years
- Subsequently inscribable with thermal transfer printing, laser engraving, and inkjet method
- Foil features from soft and smooth and flexible to stable and tear-proof
- Very thin (from 6µ) combinations of foils possible
- Permanent adhesives with a very good adhesive power for low-energy substrates
- Diverse carrier materials like compressed kraft paper in different thicknesses, transparent plastic liner, kraft paper siliconized on both sides, and environmentally stable kraft paper available
Certifications of our tube labels
As a manufacturer robos-labels has a wide range of already approved and certified labeling solutions. When additional customized licenses are required, we can take on the approval- and certification process if desired.
We also cover the first article inspections (PPF, production process and product release) in accordance with the specifications of German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) as well as the American counterpart, a PPAP inspection (Production Part Approval Process) of the AIAG (Automotive Industry Action Group).
We already meet the following standards and regulations with our raw materials:
- UL969A:2020 Standard for Marking and Labeling Systems – Flag Labels, Flag Tags, Wrap-Around-Labels and Related Products
- UL817 Safety cord sets and power supply cords
- UL2238 Cable assemblies and fittings for industrial control and signal distribution
- UL94 Flammability of plastic materials for parts in devices and appliances (UL VTM-0 strictest classification)
- FMVSS 302 Evaluation of the flammability of interior materials (flammability/burn rate)
- FORD WSS-M99P41-A72
- MS-13445 (FCA – Fiat Chrysler Automobiles)
- TL 52038 (Volkswagen standard)
- GMW14573 (General Motors)
- TM-0030T-Y (Tesla)
- GS 97058 (BMW)
- MS 373-12 (Hyundai)
- DBL 8230 (Mercedes-Benz)
- TSM7508G (Toyota)
- REACH, RoHS and IMDS conformity
- ADR 2021 Ordinance on the transport of dangerous goods by road, rail and inland waterways (GGVSEB)
- CLP Regulation (Classification, Labelling and Packaging, in accordance with EC No. 1272/2008)
- BS 5609 Label resistance to saline sea water
- DIN EN ISO 11683:1997-11 Packaging — Tactile warnings of danger — Requirements
- FDA 175.105 INDIRECT FOOD ADDITIVES: ADHESIVES AND COMPONENTS OF COATINGS
