Permanently mark plastic container

[Minos]

I have purchased a couple of mini droppers and mini sprays from Litesmith. They are good but unfortunately all come in the same color. Since some of them contains either some shaving oil, or some deodorant, or some sunscreen, or some DrBronner, or or picaridin or alcohol, I would like to PERMANENTLY mark them to avoid mixups.

Picaridin and shaving oil erase everything.

I tried Sharpie permanent markers. Does not last more than a couple of days as soon as a droplet leaks during use along the sides of the container. Is there a nice way to permanently mark plastic? I tried to put the plastic under a flame before, but no joy either.

Anyone tried lab markers? engraving?
I am not a fan of using clear tape above any marking because the diameter of the mini sprays is so small that the tape will eventually peel off. I so wish we could buy the mini droppers and sprays in various colors to differentiate.

Any feedback welcome.
Minos

[Leo L.]

Soldering iron?

[zelph]

ear tag marker pen

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=ear+tag+marker+pen

[kayak karl]

colored rubber bands

[Minos]

ear tag marker pen

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=ear+tag+marker+pen

Thanks. Have you personally tried it or do you have experience with it?
I presume you must have tried them with alcohol given your answer/business?

[Leo L.]

Note:
Almost all food containers are made of PE, and thats too "slippy" for to write on.
The ear tags are made of PU and the aforementioned marker is specially designed to write on PU.

I tried hard to find a marker to permanently write on my PE cup but failed.
Resorted to the soldering iron finally.

[nsherry61]

Tried as I have, I have never found a marker that will mark plastic bottles permanently when the bottles have solvents in them that inevitably contacts the outside of the bottle. Paint pens work better than sharpies in some cases, but they are still only temporary. I suspect (but have absolutely no personal experience with it) that ear tag markers work on ear tag plastic but may wash off bottle plastic similarly to a sharpy. If they work on the dropper bottle plastic, that would be awesome!

In the end, the only things I found to work reliably is to write on good labeling tape (also hard to find outside of science supply stores) wrapped all the way around the bottle so that it adheres to itself. Still, ultimately temporary, but much more reliable than anything written directly on the plastic.

I also like the idea of a soldering iron to etch the plastic, if not the bottle, at least the lid, if not with words, at least with a code of dots or something so you can figure out what is what. You could also probably mark the lids with the tip of a knife blade or a file. If color coding works, you might be able to wrap the bottle in a thin stripe of tape that is wrapped all the way around the bottle, again to adhere to itself, since most labels will eventually come off if they are just stuck to the bottle only.

Good luck and share any experiments that either fail or succeed please.

[Leo L.]

You could try to find a shop running a Laser marker and ask them if they could mark on PE (or whatever material your containers are made from).
While most Laser markers can't wrap around a surface, they should be able to mark along the length of the container.

If all fails you still could melt dots of the same material to your container, applying a primitive dot code.
The same way you repaired the ski coating in the old times.

[Slo-go'en]

Depending on how big the bottle is (I get the impression it's fairly small) heat shrink tubing could work. I believe it can be found in different colors, but is mostly black. If you have to identify more then two bottles (one with and one without the tubing) one could cut small bands and use various numbers of them. 1, 2, 3 bands.

[Minos]

You could try to find a shop running a Laser marker and ask them if they could mark on PE (or whatever material your containers are made from).
While most Laser markers can't wrap around a surface, they should be able to mark along the length of the container.

If all fails you still could melt dots of the same material to your container, applying a primitive dot code.
The same way you repaired the ski coating in the old times.

The mini dropper and spray look like that and re indeed made of Polypropylene (PP)
http://www.litesmith.com/mini-spray-bottles/
http://www.litesmith.com/mini-dropper-bottles/

They are quite small but I guess I could always try vertically with a laser marker. I guess I'll look into that.

[zelph]

Degrease a new bottle and then lightly flame treat with jet type lighter to burn off any oils that may have migrated to the surface. Then apply permanent marker pen. See if that works. It's a method of treating polyethylene plastic prior to printing on it's surface.

I'll check tomorrow to verify using the ear tag marking pen. It's in the garage somewhere

[MuddyWaters]

Sharpie
Cover wirh clear packing tape

You can usually get colored caps. I have clear, black, and white bottles . also red and yellow caps too.

[jimmyjam]

lightly sand them and then use the permanent marker.

[scrabbler]

- Inside of different small baggies appropriately marked.
- Different color caps.
- If the sharpie comes off, rewrite.
- label and mark with ink pen, replace as necessary.

[Minos]

Sharpie
Cover wirh clear packing tape

You can usually get colored caps. I have clear, black, and white bottles . also red and yellow caps too.

Just curious, where have you found such things - that do not leak-? I would be interested.

[MuddyWaters]

Just curious, where have you found such things - that do not leak-? I would be interested.

These items are dirt cheap. Pennies apiece. Most website vendors ream you.


http://www.usplastic.com/search/?q=Boston+dropper

[swisscross]

Food coloring.

[Leo L.]

The mini dropper and spray look like that and re indeed made of Polypropylene (PP)
http://www.litesmith.com/mini-spray-bottles/
http://www.litesmith.com/mini-dropper-bottles/

They are quite small but I guess I could always try vertically with a laser marker. I guess I'll look into that.

The sprayer is made of PP, the dropper of PE.
PP should be quite easy to mark on, PE is a problem.
Sanding or flame treating seems to be a good idea.

[ocourse]

Along the lines of jimmyjam's suggestion, use a Dremel rotary tool with a small abrasive wheel to scratch words or identifiers. I have also used a straight pin to scratch a series of lines. Then, use a Sharpie to go over the scratches. It's not such a pretty method but it works. The Sharpie will lose some of it's color at some point, but there's still enough left in the scratch recesses to read.

[Farr Away]

Rough up the surface a bit; use sharpie to label, and cover with clear nail polish. That will last for years.

-FA