Is it possible to create durable control panel labels that will stand up to moisture and significant handling? Yes it is, and here’s how. This assumes you already have some good graphic software for laying out designs and print templates. The last version for JASC Paint Shop Pro (v.9), any version of Adobe Illustrator, and of course Photoshoppe come to mind. I won’t go into those here.
Just some background, I am prototyping some electronic devices for musicians, some of which are hand-held, for test market. If you’re interested in following the evolution of these you can take a peek at
http://elfintechnologies.com from time to time (as of this writing, there is nothing there to see yet). The product cases I chose were black plastic cases, mainly ABS, made by BUD and POLYCASE. Each enclosure has a recessed area on its top surface, where a label could be placed to identify various controls and serve as a product label. Of course it would be better to have a company professionally laser screen the text and product graphics directly onto these cases. But test marketing quantities usually do not justify the setup costs for these services, especially when there’s a chance the product layout may change. But its a necessary expense if the alternative was to have a poorly done label that looks home-brewed. Online Labels to the rescue! Below I’ll describe a few product choices that I found to work well, a few that did not, and some alternatives I’m still considering.
I knew my labels would have to be hand cut, and immune to a significant amount of handling and moisture. In fact, being a product for a musician, I’d like it to withstand an accidental beer spill. I also needed to be able to print with my inkjet printer, a Lexmark Pinnacle 901 (all in one). Laser might have been better, but I have no color laser printer at my disposal, and its my understanding that laser has some other limitations with colors and graphics I wanted to avoid. Online Labels makes two products that seemed ideal. Weatherproof Gloss white OL177WI and Weatherproof Matte Finish white, OL177WJ. Both of these products are full sheets (one big label / sheet), allowing you to optimize your layout .
One important tip here! If you get either of these products, you will have to verify that they are the newest versions , particularly on the matte finish OL177WJ... If you can tear the product like paper, it is the older and now obsolete type. If you can NOT tear it easily, then what you have is the newer type, a highly durable and flexible film. It will accept ink and subsequent protective coatings much better than the old version, while its strength and flexibility will allow for some tweaking and re-positioning without tears, when you apply the labels. Trust me... you do Not want the older version. In fact you may want to insist on the newer type both in sample requests and subsequent orders, and specifically state youi want the tougher type that cannot easily be torn.
Next. since all printers are different, you’ll want to start by sampling both of these from OnlineLabels, so you can do several test prints. Personally, I’ve found the matte finish to be the better choice, even if you want a gloss finish, which I’ll explain later. Often, you can do multiple test prints with different printer settings on a single page, by moving the position of the output image using your layout software. Bear in mind I suspected I would have a major challenge. My labels all had a totally jet black background with white text and a few small multi colored graphics. This meant that the output would have to have sufficient black ink density to flawlessly match the black plastic enclosures, but with absolutely no bleeding into the white text areas and graphics. For my Lexmark Pinnacle 901, these were the settings I found to work best for the matte finish OL177WJ labels, after quite a bit of testing.
For the matte finish OL177WJ labels:
Paper Type: Photo, matte finish
Quality: Best
Image enhancement: NO
Extended Drying time: YES (if possible).\
For the gloss finish OL177WI labels, I used the same settings, except I used GLOSS PHOTO PAPER for the paper type. Again some experimentation is almost always necessary, so remember to print small labels in various positions, and keep a record of your settings for each on a on a separate piece of ordinary paper. When you’re satisfied with the print result, run the sheet(s) through again with several more instances of the image, using the best result settings.
So...Weatherproof? Well yes and no. Here I had some disappointments. Now I have dealt with very high end (and expensive) gloss photo papers that had highly porous surfaces that captured the ink, making it totally weatherproof. For whatever the reason, the gloss (OL177WI) product performed much more poorly in this regard. Granted my test was pretty severe... I’d wait a day after printing and then take a totally soaked cotton ball, and try to smear the label. With the settings I described, the matte finish product “mostly” resisted any smearing, but not 100%. When I tried the same test on the gloss product on the other hand, it was the exact opposite. Sso much black ink came off that there was hardly a trace that anything had been printed at all. The product is what it is, and I even sampled some more and tried different ink settings, but with the gloss ‘weatherproof” product the result was the same.
So there were now two options for turning the well printed labels into something tough, durable, and truly moisture resistant. One is lamination, and the other are top spray coatings. I have not completely discounted the gloss product because I suspect if lamination were done, the gloss surface might make for a better and more consistent adhesion. I have, however, all but ruled out being able to successfully laminate at home. Though companies like Scotch, Avery, and Swingline all make self sealing lamination products, I have found it impossible to get a good final result with zero air bubbles, and zero trapped dust. I will, however, bring a sheet of gloss printed labels to a place that has a lamination machine, and I will re-post the results. For now I’ll concentrate on the other method, spray coatings.
I next started experimenting with top spray coatings. Again, through multiple experiments with several Krylon products, I was finding many more usable results were obtained with the labels printed on the Matte Finish OL177WJ product. This may be because of the same more weather resistant properties it has, so the remainder of this will focus on the matte finish product. Fortunately as you’ll see, you can easily turn a matte finish label into at least a semi-gloss look, which it may be even better than super high gloss for a control panel or product label.
Now one of the toughest and most resistant Krylon coatings available is called Krylon Industrial Tough Coat. It has a clear Gloss finish version, and it’s Krylon product number 01000. It will provide a flexible finish you truly can pour water over, and is certainly tough enough to withstand scratching attempts with human finger nails. However, even though this product says it dries fast (and it does, relatively), it seemed to interact badly with the printed inks on my labels during the drying period. So I needed another “pre-coat” layer of another Krylon product, that really would dry fast and would not react at all. But now we’re talking about layering finishes, which opens up many compatibility issues between the products being layered, the ink, and the label film itself. So here’s a few combinations the I’ve found DO work. There are probably many more that do, and definitely many more I’ve found that don’t.
For the first layer, Krylon Crystal Clear FLAT, or better yet: Krylon Colormaster Clear Satin finish both work well. You’ll want to place your labels on a protected background with a strip of scrap wood along each side to hole the work down, as any spray coating will tend to cause some curling, which we want to avoid. Note also that as long was we are layering finishes, it is best for any GLOSS layer to be done last, because the irregular surface that produces a FLAT or SATIN finish will bond better with your final coat. When you spray. Always start by spraying elsewhere, away from the work, and try to spray with light even strokes. A few light coats is of course better than one heavy coat, but do try to get even coverage. A well placed lamp that makes the reflection from the wet surface obvious will help you get an even coat with a minimum of excess. Also, avoid spraying for too long because most inexpensive spray can nozzles will tend to create tiny bubbles after a while, which then harden into tiny problems. And always clear your nozzles when done, by spraying with the can upside down for a few seconds.
Even though these product harden within 10 minutes, wait at least 15 between coats, and defintly before the final coating with a different product. If you see any slight whitish fogging, that’s something to avoid but it still might be salvageable, and the fogging may disappear when the top coat is applied. Depending on whether you used the Satin Finish or Flat, you may or may not even notice that anything has been sprayed on. Now you’re ready for the “tough coat” layer. The Krylon Tough Coat is a more professional product, and it may take you some time to hunt it down, but it is well worth it! Again, use a well placed lamp so you can readily see how well you’re covering. This time, spray a slightly thicker coating, but don’t go overboard. This is a learn by doing process, so please forgive the less than scientific measurements here.
When you’re done, Let the Tough coat dry for several hours, maybe even overnight before attempting too use the labels. The product does dry relatively fast, but its one of those that gets maximally hardened over time. I will also say that though it remained flexible for the day or two between coating and actual use of the labels, it is possible it may not retain that flexibility forever.
The final step, of course, is to apply the labels to the product. It should go without saying that for best results, you want to clean your product well prior to label application, in an environment with as little airborne dust as possible. The flexibility of this label material and the top coatings will give you some latitude. I’ve actually found I could remove a label after having i’2 the way down, start over, and have no visible trace that this occurred. That’s pretty impressive I think. When you’re done, you can also eliminate any stray tiny trapped air bubbles with a sharp pin, though its obviously best to avoid them to begin with. Good luck, and please keep this thread going, as I’d certainly like to hear of any tweaks in the process, alternate coatings, and alternate processes. As for me, I can honestly say that I now have products I don’t have to be embarrassed to test market, and I’m pretty tough to please. :-)
