If you want to be able to identify what’s in your plant, you need to be able to mark the valves and the pipes. There are a lot of places that make valve tags, but you can also get pipe markers, which will help add to the efficiency and the safety of your plant.

Many companies have these pipe markers, but you want to be sure that you get some which conform to the ANSI standards for proper mechanical identification. There are several kinds of pipe markers that you can get. Some snap around the pipe, and others glue to the pipe.

Which one you’ll want to use will often depend on what the pipe is for and what kind of environment it’s in. If it’s very rough and dirty and greasy, a stick-on pipe market probably won’t hold, and you’ll want one that snaps around the pipe. Cleaner and smoother pipes can use the adhesive markers. No matter which kind you use, keeping them clean and visible is one of the keys to safety.

A lot of the producers of industrial valve tags are moving at least some of their operations overseas. Tyco Sensormatic is one of them, and it is moving over 320 jobs out of Cork and into overseas locations where things cost less. Another similar company in that region is losing 150 jobs.

With the economy struggling in many places throughout the world, it’s no surprise that this is taking place. A lot of companies can’t afford to pay their employees what they used to because sales – and therefore profits – are down and the cost of the materials and other areas of doing business is up.

Operations at the Cork facility were already scaled down in 2005, but with the changing global market that didn’t prove to be enough. Many people are very upset about the loss of jobs in their community, but Cork is not the only area and Ireland is not the only country where this is taking place. It’s becoming a worldwide trend that manufacturers move their work overseas so that they can afford to keep doing business.

Graphic Products has created new DuraTag Tag Stock, which is easier to use than what they had in the past. It comes in rolls, and can be purchased in two-inch or four-inch widths.  Perfect for industrial valve tags.

It’s able to be custom printed and cut on the DuraLabel 4TTP printer and this stops people from being required to store and organize preprinted tags that they’ve purchased. It helps with storage space and makes things a lot simpler.

Now, tags are just printed from the roll as they are needed for whatever tagging application is required. What makes this possible is the material that the DuraTag stock has been made from. It has a wide temperature range where it can be used and it’s resistant to most chemicals, so it can be used almost anywhere, in either indoor or outdoor applications. Tags can be easily hung after they are printed, and that saves money and man-hours over the way that tags were created in the past. Custom designing and printing tags has never been easier.

In the past, engraving was done with rotary presses, hot stamping, and pad printing. However, these technologies are fading away because laser engraving is becoming so popular. It works well and the cost is not excessive, making it a popular choice.

Laser engraving is efficient and it’s also extremely accurate. There is no wear and tear on bits and other parts because nothing comes into contact with the piece that’s being engraved. This helps on cost and also on the workload that a maintenance crew will have. Lasers are also friendly to the environment, because they don’t have any toxic chemicals or by-products and they don’t use any consumables.

Because the engraving pattern is computer controlled it makes a clean line fast, and it can be used on a lot of materials, including wood, plastic, leather, and certain types of papers. Up to 1,200 dots per inch can be engraved with a laser, which is much more detailed than other methods.

Identifying valves are very important for companies that have a lot of pipes. Otherwise, things can become confusing and solving a problem with a valve or pipe can become very difficult. It can even be dangerous if there is an immediate concern and no one knows which pipe or valve is the right one to shut off.

However, with the brass valve tags, this is no longer a worry. They can be produced with specific information on them, they come in a variety of metals and styles, and when used indoors they last for 30 years.

Outdoor use varies, but it usually in the seven to ten year range. They can handle temperatures from 600 to -40 Celsius and deal with most solvents and greases when they are produced in brass. Other materials might not last as long but your valve tags will cost less in the beginning, helping to reduce the up-front costs of getting the tags for all the valves.