 Blood Bag Labelling - RAVIMED
End user: RAVIMED, Polish manufacturer of containers for blood collection
 System: M84Pro 609 dpi, Specialized SATO blood bag labels, SATO resin Premier Plus 45
Benefits: Top quality and a winning match
The customer
RAVIMED is a leading manufacturer of containers for blood collection, storage and preparation in Poland, and was awarded with the Presidential Award for the Best Small Enterprise in Poland.
Besides a range of blood containers, RAVIMED also produces individual protection products and supplies laboratory services, distributing their products to 18 countries worldwide.
The application
Customer Requirements
 The customer was looking for a specialized label to apply on PVC blood bags, which would resist an extreme range of temperatures: from steam sterilization with a top temperature of 120°C, to centrifuging at a temperature of -4 °C, and finally storage in a freezer up to 6 months (at temperatures as low as -30 °C).
The thermal transfer print on the labels has to stay legible and the edges of the labels have to stick firmly to the blood bag - resisting all the processes the blood bag goes through. After removing the label from the container, it cannot be reapplied on another container (it must be destroyed), and a trace of the removed label must remain on the surface of the PVC container.
Customer’s Constraints
The customer’s experience with previous suppliers was not satisfactory, as labels were not flexible enough, often becoming wrinkled after steam sterilization and the print often became illegible.
Solution
Solution
 SATO Polska sent a selection of materials to the customer for testing, and their final choice were labels made out of special synthetic paper with solvent adhesive. These labels have especially designed cuts, preventing the label from re-usage, as the label automatically tears apart when peeling it off. Whereas any SATO e-Series printer is suitable for printing on these labels, Ravimed chose the M84Pro – SATO’s true all-rounder for the most demanding applications – as they have a very high print volume. Matching tests proved that the best carbon ribbon to use was SATO resin Premier Plus 45.
 At the beginning of the cooperation, the customer had ordered at first a smaller quantity to send to his trusted clients for final verification, and after their acceptance, RAVIMED chose SATO as their exclusive supplier, even mentioning SATO Polska in their ISO standardization documentation as a long-term supplier of blood bag labels.
SATO Polska has been delivering these special labels and ribbon for over one year now, and there have been no claims regarding either quality or features. RAVIMED and their clients are very satisfied with SATO’s blood bag labeling solution.
Benefits
 Top Quality and a Winning Match
The customer states that these are the highest quality labels for blood bags they have ever used. Moreover, the adhesive used with these labels proved to become even stronger after treating it with high temperature and steam (during the production process). In this way, RAVIMED obtained a constant delivery of the kind of labels they required: reliable, strong and flexible, adapting to physical changes in blood bags, when changing environments from hot steam, to cold centrifuging, to storing in a freezer, all the way to defrosting it for use in a hospital.
 RAVIMED has been using SATO M-84Pro 609dpi printer since January 2005 and did not have to change the print head since, already printing about 200km of labels with it! It is an extraordinary result, especially when resin ribbon is concerned.
This proves that using the original SATO consumables package and a right maintenance of the SATO printer brings clear benefits to the user and assures trouble free exploitation.
SATO’s total DCS & Labelling solutions are designed to provide a perfect fit for customer satisfaction!
 In the continuous pursuit of bringing the benefits of Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) to all sectors, SATO printers and consumables have been successfully installed in hospitals, laboratories and pharmacies worldwide, helping users to increase their efficiency and decrease expenditures.
For more information on SATO M84Pro click here
For more information on SATO carbon ribbons click here |
