If you were a cable assembler back in the early 1900's, you wouldn’t have had many options for labeling your wires besides some masking tape and a crayon. The first permanent marker wasn’t even invented until 1952. As you would expect, neither tape nor a crayon were very durable options. Thankfully, we have come a long way in both cabling and labeling since then. Today, you have many options for deciding how to label your wires. Assemblers and installers worldwide use cable labels with different numbers, symbols, and colors to easily identify and label their wires.
Read below to explore the benefits of different wire markers.
Printable Wrap-Around Labels
Blank wrap-around cable labels are a great option if you want to customize the text, numbers, or symbols that go on your labels. These cable labels are also self-laminating, which means that the label includes a clear, durable film layer to wrap around and protect your imprint. If you have a laser printer, laser printable cable labels let you print out a sheet of labels at a time. If you have a thermal transfer printer, thermal transfer cable labels provide you with the convenience of printing out a single customized label or as many labels as you need. While most people don’t own a dot-matrix printer anymore, many prefer dot-matrix cable labels because they provide a matte surface that can easily be hand-written on with a pen or permanent marker. All of these wrap-around cables work great for network cabling, patch panels, and other data communication applications.
Pre-Printed Marker Cards and Booklets
To save you some time and make cabling even easier, pre-printed cable marker cards are filled with removable letters, numbers, and symbols that are easy to peel off and stick to your cable. These markers are made using Tyvek tapes that are resistant to oil and water. For an added convenience, these labels also come in pocket-sized booklets for easy and on the go labeling. And, if you prefer to hand-write on your labels, check out Rite & Wrap blank cable label booklets. Our wire marker books are available in vinyl, cloth, and Tyvek and all feature a strong, permanent adhesive backing. These labels feature a self-laminating tail that overlaps the writing area and adds extra resilience. For the easiest possible way to mark cables, our hand-held wire marker dispenser auto-ejects labels and can easily fit in your pocket or attach to your belt loop. These dispensers can be filled with numbers, letters, and NEMA colors. For a how-to video on how easy they are to use, check out our wire marker dispenser video on YouTube! All of these marker options are excellent for audio, video, security, and network labeling.
Plastic Sleeve Markers
The benefit of using plastic sleeve markers is that they provide ultimate durability. Plastic sleeve wire markers have a high tolerance in a variety of environments, and provide easy readability. Our plastic wire markers are designed to interlock when fitted, so you can connect several characters together if needed. Plastic wire markers can be used on both terminated and non-terminated wires. If your wires are not yet terminated, use slip-on flexible wire markers. For terminated wires, use snap-on wire markers. Our slip-on plastic wire markers also come in an easy to carry holder that can be clipped to your belt loop. This slip-on wire marker holder even comes with easy to use applicators that will make wire marking a breeze! All of these plastic wire markers are ideal for electrical, pneumatic, and hydraulic applications.
Heat Shrink Markers
Heat shrink markers provide the convenience of being able to customize the text of your label while also providing ultimate durability. Heat shrink markers feature a sleeve design and can either be printed on with a thermal transfer printer, or hand-written with a permanent marker. To use a heat shrink marker, slip the sleeve over your cable and then shrink the label with a heat gun to provide a perfect fit. Heat shrink markers are extremely light, flame retardant, and resistant to fuel, oil, and high temperatures. Because of this heat shrink markers are commonly used by aerospace and train manufacturers, and in military and defense applications.
For further information on all of the cable ties we offer, check out the Label ID Systems store website.
Stay tuned for the next installment of Cable Management 101, where we’ll offer helpful tips on another popular cable management topic!
You can also check out all of our other Cable Management 101 articles, for all you need to know about the basics of Cable Management.