Labels that survive the temperature they are going to live at.
A label that lifts at −80 °C is not a cosmetic problem, it is a lost sample and a broken chain of identity. The stock, the adhesive and the print method all have to match the destination temperature — and most general 3PLs use whatever is on the printer.
Label stock, chosen for the tier
Cryogenic label stock is a thin thermoplastic film with a cryogenic adhesive that stays flexible instead of going brittle and cracking. Polypropylene stock with a permanent acrylic adhesive will bond to already-frozen surfaces as cold as −80 °C without thawing, cure time or any other special handling — which means a re-label does not cost you a freeze-thaw cycle.
- Rated for liquid nitrogen liquid and vapour phase (−196 °C)
- Ultra-low −80 °C, frozen −20 °C, refrigerated and ambient stock
- Application onto already-frozen surfaces without thawing
- Solvent, abrasion and moisture resistant faces
- Vial, cryovial, tube, plate, carton, pouch and pallet formats
Print method, chosen for the lifespan
Thermal transfer uses a ribbon and is the default for anything going into long-term or cryogenic storage: it resists abrasion, solvents and cold far better. Direct thermal is cheaper and faster but fades and is vulnerable to heat and friction — fine for a shipping label with a three-day life, wrong for a vial going into a −80 °C freezer for five years. We will tell you which one you are getting and why.
Variable data and barcoding
- Variable data printing — sequential numbering, variable text fields
- 1D Code 128 and 2D GS1 DataMatrix
- GS1 Application Identifiers: GTIN (01), expiry (17), lot (10), serial (21)
- Human-readable and machine-readable pairing on the same face
- Multi-panel and multi-language labels
- Over-labeling, relabeling and expiry-date extension
- Print-and-apply and hand application
Artwork control is the part that actually goes wrong
Version drift is the failure mode. A market gets a translation update, a component list changes, and six months later two sites are running labels that do not match. We work from a single governed master with translations merged onto a validated template, and every approval is attributable, version-specific and retrievable.
- One governed master artwork per product, versioned
- Written proofing and approval cycle before any run
- Printer proof compared against the approved artwork, every time
- Job-by-job reconciliation — issued, applied, damaged, destroyed
- Retained approval records tied to the run they authorised
A note on scope: applying labels to finished human drug or device products can make a company a "relabeler" under FDA rules, which carries its own establishment registration obligations. We do not take that work. Our labeling is for research materials, diagnostics, reagents, specimens and research-use-only biologics.
Tell us what you need to move, and at what temperature.
Send us the materials, the temperatures and the destinations. We will come back with a scope and a price — not a discovery call.