Chemical Manufacturing/Supply Labels

Wherever goods and raw materials are transported, there are statutory requirements to indicate hazardous cargo. We fully understand the requirements of the chemicals industry, and can advise you on the most appropriate labelling for your application. If you export chemicals from the UK and are responsible for shipping chemical products by sea you may need to ensure compliance with the Merchant Shipping Regulations. The regulations require packages to be ""durably marked"". This is, of course subjective so a British Standard – BS5609 – sets out various criteria regarding adhesive performance, print permanence, abrasion resistance and so on to stipulate minimum standards required by labels which may be used in ""Marine Environments"". If you fully comply with the requirements of BS5609 then your labels may be considered ""durable.BS5609 is in four parts. Parts 2 and 3 are concerned with the base label and print (including and overprint) respectively. If your label supplier confirms that the label complies with BS5609 – does he mean the whole label ie: label, pre-print and overprint? More likely it is just the base material which has been tested. To offer complete compliance it is necessary to overprint using a ribbon which has also been tested and there are very few of these – moreover if a ribbon has been tested on Label A it doesn’t necessarily follow that it will comply on Label B. For complete peace of mind we can offer a fully tested service where you can receive professional advice and recommendations. Please contact us for further details. Labels manufactured to BS5609 are intended primarily for marine shipment, but will suit any purpose requiring an extremely durable label. These are labels specified under ‘The Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations’ commonly known as The CHIP regulations.Compulsory required information under the legislation includes; – Name of substance and in the case of a preparation, the trade name or other designation; – Risk phrases; – Safety phrases; – The name and full address and telephone number of a person in a member state who is responsible for supplying the substance or preparation, whether they are the manufacturer, importer or distributor; – Indications of Danger symbols; – The EC number if any and in the case of a substance dangerous for supply which is listed in Part 1 of the Approved Supply List, the words ‘EC Label’; – There are no material specifications included within the information on a supply label.Certain minimum label sizes are described within the legislation for supply labels and are commonly referred to by a size number 1 to 4;Size 1 – 52 x 74mm – up to 3 litres; Size 2 – 74 x 105mm – 3 to 50 litres; Size 3 – 105 x 148mm – 50 to 500 litre; Size 4 – 148 x 210mm – 500 litres and above; It should be noted that each orange box (up to 4 per label) should be 10% of the minimum label size required and not 10% of the label used i.e. a size 4 label on a 90 litre container only requires size 3 orange Indication of Danger symbol boxes.A range of the most common sizes are available from stock.