Label Printer For Small Stickers For Small Cables

[Psi]

Be aware that the Brother P-touch CUBE (and maybe others) has an annoying thing where it will push out 2cm of label and cut it off to 'prime' itself every time you print. So you waste lots of your label tape.
You can print multiple copies at once and it will only do that once, or turn off the cutting feature, but in normal operation every time you send something new to the printer it wastes 2cm of label. 

It's been engineered so you use up the labels quicker so you need to buy more 
(Pretty sure it's because the motor can only run in one direction and not pull the tape back in, so it has to cut it off each time)

example
https://youtu.be/m-lxpSKFZvU?t=238

[Martin72]

We have “professional” label printers at work, each in the 4-digit price range.
They have a lead of almost 10 cm that cannot be removed...

[2X]

Be aware that the Brother P-touch CUBE (and maybe others) has an annoying thing where it will push out 2cm of label and cut it off to 'prime' itself every time you print. So you waste lots of your label tape.
You can print multiple copies at once and it will only do that once, or turn off the cutting feature, but in normal operation every time you send something new to the printer it wastes 2cm of label. 

It's been engineered so you use up the labels quicker and need to buy more 
(Pretty sure it's because the motor can only run in one direction and not pull the tape back in, so it has to cut it off each time)

example
https://youtu.be/m-lxpSKFZvU?t=238

"the printer it wastes 2cm of label."
yes you have right about that.

[tooki]

I like my Brother PTH-111, that's the most basic model that still does cable flags and electrical symbols.

AFAIK all models have basic electrical symbols.

The ones that are truly designed for electrical use not only have more symbols, but have really comprehensive electrical labeling functions (like making continuous labels for terminal block rails, with the ability to set the width individually for each module). They also print the heat-shrink tubing (which I consider a massive benefit), support wider tapes, print at higher resolution and higher speed, and have a superior cutter, which can do the extremely useful “half cut” which only cuts the tape, but not the backing. This means they can cut shorter labels, and can save tape when printing label series, by printing them all as one strip with each label individually cut on the shared backing. (Many P-touch printers have the related “chain print” function, which does nearly all these things, but cuts the backing too, limiting minimum label length.)

IMHO it’s well worth it to spend more on the true professional models.

[tooki]

Be aware that the Brother P-touch CUBE (and maybe others) has an annoying thing where it will push out 2cm of label and cut it off to 'prime' itself every time you print. So you waste lots of your label tape.
You can print multiple copies at once and it will only do that once, or turn off the cutting feature, but in normal operation every time you send something new to the printer it wastes 2cm of label. 

It's been engineered so you use up the labels quicker so you need to buy more 
(Pretty sure it's because the motor can only run in one direction and not pull the tape back in, so it has to cut it off each time)

example
https://youtu.be/m-lxpSKFZvU?t=238

All P-touch printers that use TZe (and the older TZ) tapes have the waste, but it’s really not some conspiracy. It makes complete sense if you actually look at the print mechanism and label design, and consider why it is designed the way it is. I cannot envision any way to design the system in a way that is _significantly_ more economical with the tape.


It’s not because they lack a bidirectional motor,* but because these are laminated labels, and the ~2cm is the distance between the print head and the cutter. There needs to be a short distance between the cutter and the laminating rollers that bring together the (non-adhesive) laminating tape and the double-sided adhesive tape which determines the label color. The text is printed via thermal transfer onto the inside of the laminating tape. Realistically, it would be very difficult to design the system with significantly less distance than the 2cm, because of the number of things in that space: the print head, pinch roller for the print head, capstan and pinch roller that press together the lamination as well as advance the tape through the machine, guides to prevent the lamination tape and double-sided tape from touching prematurely, and to prevent the double-sided tape from touching the ink ribbon, and an idler to guide the spent ink ribbon to its take-up reel. The gap between the cutter and lamination rollers is necessary so that the layers can’t come apart by accident when handling the cassettes. (Realigning the layers is extremely hard to do accurately by hand, so they designed it so they’re joined at the factory and the user never needs to do it.)

Yes, there are TZe cassettes that aren’t laminated (including a few non-laminated labels, but mostly for the heat shrink tubing, gift-wrap/decorative ribbons, and the stencil tapes), but since the TZe mechanism is designed around laminated labels, the media path can’t be optimized to be more conservative with non-laminated tapes.

So while it’s absolutely frustrating that some tape is wasted on each print job, I don’t really see how it could be improved. The real frustration, though, isn’t from the waste as such, but from knowing that the wasted tape is quite expensive. But there’s an easy fix for this: buy generic cassettes! They’re like $2 each, and I can tell you from experience that you quickly learn to ignore waste tape when you know it costs next to nothing.



Commercial label printers that cost thousands use separate motors and gears so they can advance the ink ribbon and label separately, and many of these use sensors to not only detect the gaps between labels, but to detect the cut end, so they can then retract the label roll to print on the first one. But these don’t laminate the labels. (AFAIK a separate lamination unit can be added to some models, but these also need some space, which also gets wasted if you just need one label.)



*The motor isn’t bidirectional, but that’s because the laminating process means that tape must not be retracted under any circumstances. (Trying to do so by hand will ruin the cassette, as will attempting to pull on the tape by hand, which pulls the tape through the lamination rollers, but doesn’t advance the ink ribbon take up reel, so the ribbon gets pulled into the lamination rollers.)

[2N3055]

At least on my printer you can choose cutting program.

If you are printing many (different) labels, but all in one go, you can set printer to CUT but not EJECT immediately. You edit and print them all, on by one, and on the last one you issue command eject and cut.

That way you get one long snake with all labels on it, and then you peel them off in order and stick them where they go.
By doing that you only get one wasted 2cm of tape on beginning.

[tooki]

Finally, I bought the Brother P-touch PT-P700 and the labels are indeed chemical resistant (at least in Isopropyl Alcohol and lighter fluid). The software is very versatile and it has many wizard labels for different applications. The only downside for me is that I can't print a label/sticker with length smaller than 25mm with auto cutting (I don't know if this can do it another model of Brother... if anyone knows please write it).

Thanks all of you for you opinions... I am very pleased with this purchase.

The models that are capable of “half cut” (the “dual blade” cutter that can cut the tape without cutting the paper backing tape), like the PT-P900 series and PT-E500 series, can cut the label shorter, but for individual labels, the remainder is wasted. Using the chain print feature, only the initial leader is wasted.

The PT-P900 series says 4mm minimum length, the PT-E500 series 10mm.


Oh yeah, Brother recently released the FLe series of cable flags. But they only work with certain printers that accept 36mm tapes: the PT-P900 series and the PT-E800W.

[tooki]

At least on my printer you can choose cutting program.

If you are printing many (different) labels, but all in one go, you can set printer to CUT but not EJECT immediately. You edit and print them all, on by one, and on the last one you issue command eject and cut.

That way you get one long snake with all labels on it, and then you peel them off in order and stick them where they go.
By doing that you only get one wasted 2cm of tape on beginning.

That’s the “chain print” function I mentioned earlier.

On printers with the advanced automatic cutter that can do half-cut, you get the labels cut individually on a single backing paper.
On printers with the standard automatic cutter that can only cut all the way through, chain print spits out individual labels, but you have to then manually eject the last one.

[tooki]

As an FYI, I found in one Brother manual that the ~2cm is actually 22.3mm.

[2X]

One feature that I found very useful for me is the printing labels from excel.

Printing From Excel to P - Touch or Brother QL-1100 and 810 printers


Creating Spreadsheets with P Touch Editor

[artag]

With one manufacturer's labels (not sure if Dymo or Brother) I found the polyester label didn't like to crease around a very small radius. The result was that it wouldn't stick in roll manner at at all and if placed as a flag the crease would unstick itself. The same manufacturer also offered a paper label and this was fine though it may be less resistant to washing.

Before these label makers were available we used to print or write labels on paper and then place them inside clear heatshrink.  This is more fiddly but completely protects the writing as the label is on the inside rather than outside of the heatshrink.

[tooki]

With one manufacturer's labels (not sure if Dymo or Brother) I found the polyester label didn't like to crease around a very small radius. The result was that it wouldn't stick in roll manner at at all and if placed as a flag the crease would unstick itself. The same manufacturer also offered a paper label and this was fine though it may be less resistant to washing.

The regular Brother TZe tapes will eventually try to revert to flat when applied to small radiuses on corners or cables. The “Flexible ID” tapes (TZe-FX series) look and feel the same, but are made of a different material that doesn’t revert to flat. Brother recommends the Flexible ID labels for all cable labeling. I actually don’t know why you wouldn’t use them for everything; I can’t see any aspect in which they’re inferior to the standard ones, and the difference in cost is minimal.

Brother’s own durability data doesn’t indicate any application where the Flexible ID tape performs worse than standard, and several where it does better: https://www.brother.eu/-/media/product-downloads/devices/nordics/eu_en/labelling-machines/2022-tze-tapes-booklet-160-x-227mm_eng_web.pdf

I have also found mention of a TZe-SL series of “self-laminating” tapes specifically for labeling network cables, which look like they might be ones with opaque base tape only on one part, so that the clear tape wraps over the printing multiple times.

See also: https://www.brother.eu/-/media/product-downloads/devices/nordics/eu_en/pro-tape/a5-civ-tape-label-catalogue_v3_eng_jun24_web.pdf

Before these label makers were available we used to print or write labels on paper and then place them inside clear heatshrink.  This is more fiddly but completely protects the writing as the label is on the inside rather than outside of the heatshrink.

Sure. I have done the same. But for most cables, unnecessary since all the relevant TZe tapes are laminated already. Good trick for making the HSe heat shrink printing more durable.

[tooki]

iring.
In my experience the Brother / Dymo labels are less suitable for marking wires as the glue tends to let go.

Using the regular tapes or the Flexible ID tapes Brother specifically recommends for wires?

[tooki]

This is not cheap but it will do nice jobs for wires marking including the heat shrink type.
https://www.wago.com/us/marking/thermal-transfer-printer/p/258-5107

Another department at work has one of those the old version of that.* It seems like one of the most cost-effective printers of its type, in that both the machine and its consumables are quite competitively priced. (Especially if you can order consumables directly from WAGO and negotiate a good discount.)

It’s one of the printers that ejects the cut end of the roll of labels/tags quite far, making you think it’ll waste a lot, but then it retracts it back in to print right at the cut end.


*the new version, aside from having a different color enclosure, appears to differ only in having a more powerful internal controller board that allows for unlimited marking strip length.

[shabaz]

This is not cheap but it will do nice jobs for wires marking including the heat shrink type.
https://www.wago.com/us/marking/thermal-transfer-printer/p/258-5107

Another department at work has one of those. It seems like one of the most cost-effective printers of its type, in that both the machine and its consumables are quite competitively priced. (Especially if you can order consumables directly from WAGO and negotiate a good discount.)

It’s one of the printers that ejects the cut end of the roll of labels/tags quite far, making you think it’ll waste a lot, but then it retracts it back in to print right at the cut end.

Nice looking device. I wonder if Zebra make it for Wago, the design looks so similar to Zebra TLP paper label printers etc. If so, it will probably last forever, knowing how reliable the Zebra machines are!

[tooki]

This is not cheap but it will do nice jobs for wires marking including the heat shrink type.
https://www.wago.com/us/marking/thermal-transfer-printer/p/258-5107

Another department at work has one of those. It seems like one of the most cost-effective printers of its type, in that both the machine and its consumables are quite competitively priced. (Especially if you can order consumables directly from WAGO and negotiate a good discount.)

It’s one of the printers that ejects the cut end of the roll of labels/tags quite far, making you think it’ll waste a lot, but then it retracts it back in to print right at the cut end.

Nice looking device. I wonder if Zebra make it for Wago, the design looks so similar to Zebra TLP paper label printers etc. If so, it will probably last forever, knowing how reliable the Zebra machines are!

It is not a Zebra. The Wago only resembles the Zebra insofar as they are both share the basic body plan of midsize desktop label printers. None of the details in any way look alike.

On the other hand, it’s a dead ringer for the GoDEX RT230i, including in fundamental specs, as well as details like the shapes of latches and control panel layout. Without a doubt, that’s the printer the WAGO is based on. But the print mechanism might be slightly modified to allow it to feed much narrower and much thicker materials than the GoDEX can. (The thickness is accommodated by having different rollers to swap in, some with grooves to “countersink” thick materials.) Wago’s optional cutter accessory is completely different from GoDEX’s, probably to be able to cut thicker materials.

[chrisc]

The regular Brother TZe tapes will eventually try to revert to flat when applied to small radiuses on corners or cables. The “Flexible ID” tapes (TZe-FX series) look and feel the same, but are made of a different material that doesn’t revert to flat. Brother recommends the Flexible ID labels for all cable labeling. I actually don’t know why you wouldn’t use them for everything; I can’t see any aspect in which they’re inferior to the standard ones, and the difference in cost is minimal.

I second this. I dicked around with various label printers over the past 20 years until I decided to fork out for a Brother PT-E550WVP. The tapes are ultra-cheap if you buy generic and the Flexible ID tape sticks and stays stuck when the cable flexes. No non-stretchable cable labels can achieve that. It also handles printing on heat-shrink tube-type labels if you want to go that way, though note their widest heat-shrink (24mm) is not quite wide enough to fit over the end of an RJ45 that has a boot fitted 

OP, these printers are beasts - they can print dozens of labels at once with only one single leader as they have the ability to do a half-cut (slice through the label material while leaving the backing intact). You can set spacing and auto-increment of labels and as such print a single label for a 24-port Ethernet switch or a fuse board.

They also have one really interesting tape called the "Stencil". When printed the part that would normally form letters is in fact removed from the tape. Hence if you stick it on something you can etch it or label it with ink directly. Haven't tried etching glass with it yet but the usual electro-etching of metal works fine. You then remove and discard the tape.

There's a decent keyboard (which is what I use most of the time), a WiFi interface and USB also. They seem to be selling for around AU$250 at the moment, which is what I paid a few years ago so the price seems stable.

I've attached the current tape catalog and tape technical data in case it's of interest to readers of this thread.

[tooki]

The Flexible ID tapes aren't actually stretchy, though. It really surprised me when I first tried them. They just don't have "memory" of their unbent, flat state like the regular tapes do. Those want to flatten out eventually. The Flexible ID tapes are happy to stay wrapped tightly or bent around a tight corner (even with only a small length on one side).

There actually is a 31mm heat shrink tube (HSe-261E). Not sure why Brother's own tape overview omits it! Of course, the PT-E500 series can't print them, since it maxes out at 24mm. You need a PT-P900 series or PT-E800W.