Print product labels in-house or externally?

Labels in manufacturing industries help improve supply, increase labor productivity, and also inform, warn, protect, or help prevent workplace accidents. Labels on thousands of products in stores are once again intended to attract customers' attention and thus help increase product sales. The quality requirements for labels are generally very demanding. Is it therefore possible to print high-quality product labels in-house, or is external assistance from a company producing custom labels necessary?

Right from the start, it should be said that labels are not just about a graphically perfect design. Labels or tags on products must cope with both normal and extreme conditions. They should be resistant to adverse weather conditions and water, withstand high temperatures, aggressive chemicals, high-pressure spraying, and multiple washing cycles.

Product labels and tags used in industrial sectors must adhere firmly even to greasy, rough, or painted materials, whereas labels intended for the food industry are expected to be safe for human health and to place a minimal ecological burden on the environment.

Tip: How to protect the environment every day, even outside the office?

Choosing the right device won’t be a problem

Looking at the wide range of specialized devices, it is clear that the conditions for in-house printing of labels or tags are more than satisfactory. Handheld label printing devices are available, as well as intelligent and highly powerful devices suitable for offices, warehouses, laboratories, or manufacturing facilities where the required quantity of printed labels ranges from several hundred to thousands per day, and also specialized devices with integrated printing functions, including graphic THT printers intended for printing graphic labels.

You won't be any worse off when it comes to the materials used for printing labels. In the offer you will find labels and tags made for general industrial marking (for example shipping, nameplate and inventory tags), but specific labels or tags intended for particular industries are also available. Among all of them, we can mention labels, tags, heat-shrink tubing intended for marking cabling, networks, patch panels, and switchboards. It follows from the above that the limiting factor in deciding between in-house or external label printing will not be the technical or material resources.

Internal vs. external label printing

If you may have thought that the decisive factor would be the price of label printing, you may be surprised. Not that this perspective is entirely irrelevant, but affordable thermal printers that do not require ink, toner, or even a print ribbon can offer inexpensive yet graphically well-designed labels. However, we will not keep you in suspense any longer and will reveal that in the final decision-making, it will be necessary to take into account rather the time when the labels need to be available and the type of your business. We’ll explain why right away.

A company that, as part of its business activities, works daily with high volumes of shipped products obviously cannot entrust label printing to an external company. Neither the quantity nor the price of the tags is decisive; the labels must be immediately at hand during dispatch, and no one can afford losses associated with product delays. It is also worth opting for in-house printing in cases where the product’s production cycle is not hectic and the label printer is sufficient to cover the required quantity of labels.

And again, businesses that are unable to handle the printing of labels with professional design or quality in-house, or labels with security features in the form of intaglio printing, cannot do without external printing.