Writing on Hydraulic Hose Labels with a pencil

Written by Oliver Stockton, Managing Director, CILS

Write on your durable hydraulic hose labels with a pencil and you will be surprised at the results. Hose identification has never been easier.

If you are looking for a quick way to identify your hydraulic hoses but don’t have access to a printer, they can be written by hand and remain incredibly durable.

CILS self-laminating hydraulic hose labels have a special computer printable area and a clear tail portion that wraps around to overlap itself, this protects the print or handwriting to make the label exceptionally durable.

The printable area of a hose marker has been specifically formulated to accept toner from a laser printer or the ribbon from a thermal transfer printer but will also accept the ink from a ballpoint pen, permanent marker or pencil.

Customers who wrote on their hydraulic hose labels using ordinary graphite pencils commented that their handwriting had lasted for many years without fading, so we looked into why this may be the case.

Modern pencils are made from a graphite powder and graphite does not fade. Lead is even better but hasn’t been used in pencils since the early 20th century, long before the invention of computer imprintable labels!

The drawback of graphite powder is that it can smudge, or break down if exposed, but because a CILS hydraulic hose label has a clear protective tail that covers the handwriting, it will not break down and shouldn’t fade.

Ballpoint and gel pens fade in UV sunlight and to a lesser extent under UV lighting so you should consider where your label will be situated and its exposure to UV.

Pen is fine for short term labelling but if you need something with more longevity or that is darker than a pencil, there are pens specially developed for the aerospace industry such as the Edding 8404 Series, Black Aerospace Marker but do your own research to see which one is the best for your environment.

Let us know what you want to print onto your hydraulic labels and whether you would like to print or handwrite your text and we will make a recommendation.

Get in touch and one of our friendly specialists will be happy to help.