Highly resistant labels

Labels for instrument strainers in the central sterilization

Initial Situation

Every hospital has a central sterilization department responsible for the correct sterilization of instruments. Smaller instruments, such as surgical cutlery, are been put in so-called instrument strainers for the cleaning, disinfection and sterilization process. The sterilization department of a university hospital inquired the optimal combination of label and ribbon for the identification marking of instrument strainers of alpharoll.

Difficulty

Water, water pressure, heat and chemicals are being used during the cleaning, disinfection and sterilization process in order to eliminate all impurities and harmful microbes. The synthetic label and the ribbon used for printing have to be extremely resistant to contact with liquids, high temperatures and chemicals substances. The intense contact with water in the dishwasher and the heat in steam autoclaves in particular are a notable hardness test. Label and print image should remain unimpaired over the course of as many cycles as possible.

Solution proposed by alpharoll

alpharoll conducted testwith resistant label and resin based thermal transfer ribbons. A special synthetic label has been chosen as a solution.