Guides → Label material, durability and outdoor life

Label material, durability and outdoor life

A label that falls off or fades has failed, however correct its wording. The specification is on every product page, and the part that decides outdoor life is the adhesive rather than the print.

What a spec should tell you

  • Face material — what the label is made of.
  • Finish — gloss or matt laminate, or engraved.
  • Adhesive — the part that decides whether it is still there in five years.
  • Face colour — and whether it is reflective, which some clauses require.
  • Size — because some clauses specify minimum letter heights.

Every one of those is listed per product on its own page.

What ours are

Our printed labels are Avery Dennison® MPI Matte Opaque Hi Tack, in matt or gloss laminate, on one of two adhesives — a strong backing adhesive, or a long-life outdoor adhesive where the label lives on an enclosure in the weather. Face colours are red, white or yellow depending on what the clause requires.

Why the adhesive decides it

A solar label lives on a hot metal enclosure outdoors, through temperature cycling, through UV, for the life of the system. Print quality decides whether it is legible on day one; the adhesive decides whether it is on the enclosure in year seven.

Reflective is sometimes mandatory, not a preference

690.12(2) under the 2023 edition requires the rapid shutdown switch label to be reflective, white on red, with letters at least 9.5 mm (3/8 in.). 690.56(C) under 2014 requires its plaque to be reflective too. Those are not upgrades — a non-reflective label fails them.

Engraved where printing will not survive

Some placards are engraved rather than printed, which removes the question of whether the print will outlast the substrate.

What to ask a supplier

  1. What is the face material and the adhesive, by name.
  2. Is it reflective where the code requires reflective.
  3. What letter height, against the clause that specifies one.
  4. Which NEC editions the wording is written to.
For Kev. The reflective and 9.5 mm figures are from our own signage rules, and the Avery Dennison line is from Product.material_spec — but note that field holds a CDN URL rather than a material name on 257 of 451 published products, so the spec shown to a customer on those pages is a link, not a specification. Worth a look. The "year seven" framing and the adhesive-over-print argument are mine and unevidenced — this is the guide the matrix says competitors leave unanswered, so it is also the one where your own supplier knowledge should replace my reasoning.