Labelling plastic boxes

You might try inkjet or laser decal paper. I've only used it a couple times, but it seems to work pretty well.

Mike

You can't beat engraving.

Graham

Letraset. Advise putting clear nail polish over it if on a surface that is handled.

I made a very professional looking - you couldn't tell it from stock microwave front panel overlay. Simply from an inkjet printed bit of paper, laminated, and glued with contact adhesive over the membrane.

To replace the existing dark grey on black 10 point (or so) text, with bright pastels on black 24 point, which can actually be read.

Lasted fine over a year or sos use.

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If you can live with a white decal, use polyester stickers from Avery/Zweckform, type 4776. You can print on them with a laseprinter and the result looks very good. Look at

Meindert

Oh..... the trick with them is to print in reverse. Then the print is underneath the surface. You need to find a clever way of printing in reverse though. I forget how I did it now.

Graham

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Use drawing software like Paint Shop Pro or something and mirror the image before printing it.

--DF

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My wife has a Dymo LabelWriter 330 (had to walk over to her office and look ;-) THERMAL prints on clear stick-on labels. Since it's thermal it doesn't rub off.

...Jim Thompson

I've printed on plain transparent plastic film and then used spray adhesive to fix it to the box. For small legends you can also use double sided tape to fix it.

Graham

Or even simpler, buy some blank adhesive-backed paper labels in the full sheet size, print with laser or ink-jet, spray with matte finish artist's fixative (basically a clear spray paint available at art supply stores) and cut to size. Go easy with the spray on laser printing - it dissolves the toner, which gives it a nice finish if done right but can smear the image if you're sloppy.

-- Joe Legris

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I've heard that in Arizona thermal print-heads get COLD and you wind up with a negative image.

Seriously though, thermal labels are as unstable as thermal fax-paper. Better use ink.

-- Joe Legris

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Not this one. It BURNS an image... not your usual heat sensitive paper.

...Jim Thompson

The clear spray paint is unlikely to be nearly as hardwearing though.

For a truly professional job there are front-panel companies out there that will do one-offs. I don't have any URL's, unfortunately.

Stick-on labels that have been run through a laser printer work well -- inkjet ink is water based and will probably come off no matter what you do.

Personally I would use the inkjet label, or just a good quality adhesive paper label, and overlay it with clear adhesive.

Not the case with my Xerox Docuprint.

Graham

Good for you. Most of the cheap ones that I've used have been water-based.

A long time ago I worked for a company that manufactured a few test boxes a month. We made the front panel labels on a copy machine with the same toner system as a laser printer. The labels looked nice, but had durability problems over the span of a few month's hard use -- so even with that 'indelible' process we still overlaid the things with clear plastic.

Then we just went out and bought a few hundred labels...

It takes a little patience, but if it's done right it looks better than screen printing. But be careful when you cover it - brushing laquer over it can lift the letters and move them around. I've always used clear spray. And even _that_, very sparingly.

Cheers! Rich

Hmmmm, I have been lettering black plastic panels this morning!

Used to be standard around here to use rub on's. Mostly used on white aluminum panels. We also used to paint those panels white. After the black letters were put on, Krylon Crystal Clear in coats to set the WHOLE panel, not just parts. Sometimes if you put too much on and the panel was at an angle, the letters would start to tumble! Plastic panels are no different except these with the embossed pattern, are harder to work with than smooth material. We used to have many old packets of Datak Dry Transfer lables. Trouble was when they dried up they were harder to use.

I was using Brother white on clear this morning. Need white letters for black panels. Results are nice and neat but not spectacular. I'm looking at the glossy lables over the semi gloss black panel. If I would put a sheet of mylar over top the glossy labels, the lable may disappear and look really neat!

greg