EIM has a long history of making vaccine labels for glass vials. And though we’ve frequently been called on to provide a CryoLabel® that can survive the specialized ultracold freezers (-94°F/-70°C) that some vaccines require, we can also provide labels for far less extreme, 4°C refrigerated environments.
Most would think that eliminating the need for deep freeze would remove the trickiness that comes with helping labels survive cold temps—but even exposing a label to normal refrigerated temperatures and moisture can present its own set of challenges, as one of our vaccine manufacturing customers found out.
The Challenge: Well into a vaccine project, the pharmaceutical manufacturer had reached the stage where they were automatically applying lab labels to vaccine vials… only to belatedly discover that upon being handled or touched, the printed information on their labels would smear, obscuring, or worse, destroying vitally important information, potentially delaying the timely delivery of a much needed vaccine!
The Journey: The company’s Senior Fill Room Technician began to look for a way to fix their smearing problem, and eventually concluded that new labels were needed to eliminate the crippling issue entirely. Sourcing new supplies mid-project is never a pleasant task, but fortunately for our client he reached out to Account Manager Ed August, one of our long time Label Experts who specializes in laboratory labels.
The Solution: Upon carefully assessing the ink smearing issues with our client, Ed decided to send them samples of our most popular CryoLabel® to test in their vaccine manufacturing facility. The samples passed the print smearing test with flying colors. Ed continued to work with the customer to find the perfect solution, wanting to mitigate any errors that might take place when switching suppliers mid-operation. After some additional testing with the automatic label applicator, the customer settled on our thicker (3 mil) cryogenic label, as the perfect combo of smooth application and durable print.
The Results: Thanks to Label Expert Ed, our client was able to get back on track with their important vaccine manufacturing. Without the worry of print smearing issues dogging them throughout the process, all of the requisite information was able to be tracked, and the vaccines were able to be handled and even exposed to moisture experienced during cold storage without their labels losing adhesion.
The Label Experts are happy to assist companies developing vaccines, that are critical to public health, with vaccine labels for glass vials. From normal 34°F refrigeration to LN2 exposure, our labels are up to the task. Get in touch with us for help troubleshooting and resolving issues with labeling glass vials for vaccines or any other labels for pharmaceutical products.
