Yahoo Groups archive

Homebrew_PCBs

Index last updated: 2026-03-31 23:13 UTC

Thread

An Open Letter to Mouser

An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-02-15 by Eldon Brown

An open letter to Mouser - Sorry this is a little OT

Mouser Label Fades

I have been buying parts form Mouser for a long time, one of the things that
I like is the attached label for each bag of components - it is nice
neat consistent label, with descriptive, reorder information, and it
contains my PO number for that purchase. It is a very nice and useful parts
storage and sorting label.

BUT NO! - one year old Labels are starting to fade - Mouser what is wrong
with your bag labels ?????



See: http://wa0uwh.blogspot.com/2011/02/mouser-label-fades.html

Regards,
Eldon Brown

72 - Eldon - WA0UWH - CN88xc - http://WA0UWH.blogspot.com/


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-02-15 by Malcolm Parker-Lisberg

It could be because all components have a shelf life, or just so you will have to buy again!

Malcolm

I don't suffer from insanity I enjoy it!

Show quoted textHide quoted text
--- On Tue, 2/15/11, Eldon Brown <eldonb46@...> wrote:

From: Eldon Brown <eldonb46@...>
Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] An Open Letter to Mouser
To: "Homebrew PCBs" <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 12:01 AM

















An open letter to Mouser - Sorry this is a little OT



Mouser Label Fades



I have been buying parts form Mouser for a long time, one of the things that

I like is the attached label for each bag of components - it is nice

neat consistent label, with descriptive, reorder information, and it

contains my PO number for that purchase. It is a very nice and useful parts

storage and sorting label.



BUT NO! - one year old Labels are starting to fade - Mouser what is wrong

with your bag labels ?????



See: http://wa0uwh.blogspot.com/2011/02/mouser-label-fades.html



Regards,

Eldon Brown



72 - Eldon - WA0UWH - CN88xc - http://WA0UWH.blogspot.com/



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
























____________________________________________________________________________________
Never miss an email again!
Yahoo! Toolbar alerts you the instant new Mail arrives.
http://tools.search.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-02-15 by Andrew Sparrow

If it's faded thermal paper there is a spray you can get to restore...
not sure what it is but the IRD here in NZ have it to restore old
receipts that can no longer be viewed...

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-02-15 by Andrew Villeneuve

Yup, that's thermal paper - it's the same technology used for printing
receipts at just about every point-of-sale system you'll ever come across.

The principle of the thing is the paper is pre-treated with carbon to
blacken when heated, so an image can be formed on it easily, and without
separate supplies. The image fades with time.

Then why do people use this technology? The printers are simple - cheap,
small, portable, fast, and reliable. They never jam, they don't need any
kind of ink or toner, they don't need to be cleaned, they don't have a
"warm-up" time, and the people pulling orders at the warehouse don't have to
fiddle with clumsy higher-quality printers.

The only real drawbacks are
1) It doesn't scale up to big sizes well, which doesn't matter when you're
printing labels,
2) It doesn't do color or high resolution (or even grayscale), which doesn't
matter when you're printing shipping labels,
3) The images have bad shelf life, which doesn't matter when you're printing
shipping labels.

I think you'll have this problem with just about every vendor, as this seems
to be standard practice in my experience. I know Digi-key and TI.com print
labels the same way.

With that, though, I'll confess - I've got quite a few bags of parts
labelled with their original thermal labels that I probably won't be able to
read next year.

-Andrew


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-02-15 by Philip Pemberton

On 15/02/11 00:01, Eldon Brown wrote:
> BUT NO! - one year old Labels are starting to fade - Mouser what is wrong
> with your bag labels ?????

Farnell do this too... or they do for stock which originated from the
Liege (Belgium) warehouse. Most stock from the UK warehouse has
dot-matrix printed labels which don't fade, smear or smudge no matter
what you do to them. There's very little useful info on them though, you
basically get part number, quantity and (if memory serves) the Farnell
invoice number, stock bin location (where it is in their warehouse) and
order line number.

Still, it's enough info to correlate a pack of parts with my stock
database...

--
Phil.
ygroups@...
http://www.philpem.me.uk/

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-02-15 by H. Carl Ott

On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 7:01 PM, Eldon Brown <eldonb46@...> wrote:

Show quoted textHide quoted text
>
>
> BUT NO! - one year old Labels are starting to fade - Mouser what is wrong
> with your bag labels ?????
>
>
Yeah, noticed that too.
I've taken to writing the part number on the label with a sharpie before it
becomes unreadable.
With some SMD parts, without the numbers on the label I might as well toss
the parts in the trash.

Did not seem to have the problem a few years ago. Been ordering from mouser
for a long time.

-carl


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-02-15 by Andrew Hakman

I have lots of parts ordered from digikey - they use thermal labels too, but
I don't see any fading of the labels at all, and I have parts that are more
than 2 years old. I also have some really old parts from ElectroSonic, and
their thermal labels are fine too. Those ones are at least 10 years old. Not
all thermal labels / systems are the same. Some remain useful for a long
time. This is true with receipts as well. Some last a long time, some last
for a very shot time. With receipts, there's actually some law that says
they have to remain readable for a certain amount of time, but I forget how
long that time actually is.

Andrew

Show quoted textHide quoted text
On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 6:35 PM, H. Carl Ott <hcarlott@...> wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 7:01 PM, Eldon Brown <eldonb46@...> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > BUT NO! - one year old Labels are starting to fade - Mouser what is wrong
> > with your bag labels ?????
> >
> >
> Yeah, noticed that too.
> I've taken to writing the part number on the label with a sharpie before it
> becomes unreadable.
> With some SMD parts, without the numbers on the label I might as well toss
> the parts in the trash.
>
> Did not seem to have the problem a few years ago. Been ordering from mouser
> for a long time.
>
> -carl
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-02-15 by Ben L

Been buying Parts from Mouser for a long long time, I have not noticed labels fading. I have some packages in there that are 5 or 6 years old maybe some older they do not seem faded. Now I have gotten a few here and there that did not seem to print good like the printer was about out of ink but normally they are very readable and have not notice a fading problem with them.

Ben


Show quoted textHide quoted text
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Eldon Brown <eldonb46@...> wrote:
>
> An open letter to Mouser - Sorry this is a little OT
>
> Mouser Label Fades
>
> I have been buying parts form Mouser for a long time, one of the things that
> I like is the attached label for each bag of components - it is nice
> neat consistent label, with descriptive, reorder information, and it
> contains my PO number for that purchase. It is a very nice and useful parts
> storage and sorting label.
>
> BUT NO! - one year old Labels are starting to fade - Mouser what is wrong
> with your bag labels ?????
>
>
>
> See: http://wa0uwh.blogspot.com/2011/02/mouser-label-fades.html
>
> Regards,
> Eldon Brown
>
> 72 - Eldon - WA0UWH - CN88xc - http://WA0UWH.blogspot.com/
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-02-15 by toddroberts2001@aol.com

This has happened to me also. After only a year or two
bags of parts from Mouser have faded labels. Some I can barely
read when put next to a strong light.

Best to rewrite the part no. on the label with a pen in a different
spot on the label as soon as you get the parts!

Todd

RE: [Homebrew_PCBs] An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-02-15 by Tony Smith

> Yup, that's thermal paper - it's the same technology used for printing
> receipts at just about every point-of-sale system you'll ever come across.
>
>
> The only real drawbacks are
> 1) It doesn't scale up to big sizes well, which doesn't matter when you're
> printing labels,
> 2) It doesn't do color or high resolution (or even grayscale), which
doesn't
> matter when you're printing shipping labels,
> 3) The images have bad shelf life, which doesn't matter when you're
printing
Show quoted textHide quoted text
> shipping labels.


Actually, you can get 2 colour thermal, usually red & black. The two
different inks react at different temperatures. Not all that widespread
though, so 'doesn't do color' still holds.

They fade if kept in a hot place, or from ultraviolet light. They'll last
longer if kept cool and dark, I have a habit of using the dockets as
bookmarks and they're still ok 5 or 10 years later.

If sitting out on your bench or a shelf then 6-12 months is about normal,
unless your bench is down in the dungeon.

You hear stories where people try to iron damp tickets or laminate them...
Use a docket as coaster for a while and see what the warmth from the coffee
cup does.

Tony

RE: [Homebrew_PCBs] An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-02-15 by Tony Smith

< > Yup, that's thermal paper - it's the same technology used for printing
> > receipts at just about every point-of-sale system you'll ever come
across.
> >
>
> They fade if kept in a hot place, or from ultraviolet light. They'll last
> longer if kept cool and dark, I have a habit of using the dockets as
bookmarks
Show quoted textHide quoted text
> and they're still ok 5 or 10 years later.


Oh, and oils, especially the fat from your hamburger, will cause you grief
as well. Don't put the receipt in with your lunch!

Tony

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-02-15 by Dylan Smith

El 15/02/11 01:15, Andrew Villeneuve escribió:
Show quoted textHide quoted text
> I think you'll have this problem with just about every vendor, as this seems
> to be standard practice in my experience. I know Digi-key and TI.com print
> labels the same way.
It seems like here at least Farnell uses dot-matrix printers for their
bag labels.

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-02-15 by Stefan Trethan

Most of the stuff from Farnell uses thermal labels that fade.
RS components also uses thermal labels.

You can check if it is thermal with a soldering iron, obviously.

There are varying grades of thermal paper, with different archival time and
always only guaranteed under strict environmental conditions.
So you basically have to copy them all.

I pay for the components, not the label, so I don't hold it against them.

ST

Show quoted textHide quoted text
On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 9:30 AM, Dylan Smith <dyls@...> wrote:

>
> It seems like here at least Farnell uses dot-matrix printers for their
> bag labels.
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-02-15 by kabowers@NorthState.net

On Tue, 15 Feb 2011 02:17:31 -0000, you wrote:

Show quoted textHide quoted text
>
>Been buying Parts from Mouser for a long long time, I have not noticed labels fading. I have some packages in there that are 5 or 6 years old maybe some older they do not seem faded. Now I have gotten a few here and there that did not seem to print good like the printer was about out of ink but normally they are very readable and have not notice a fading problem with them.
>
>Ben
>
>
>-
Anything for the last couple of years fades. I was stuffing a board last night and was
fuming about their fading labels when I ran across a pack of components I had failed
to re label with my Sharpie. I did a LOT work with printing systems for a major
multinational for many years and this type of thing doesn't have to happen.
Someone in Mouser's IT department dropped the ball 8=(

Keith Bowers WB4LSJ- Thomasville, NC

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-08-23 by Paul Mateer

We just got an order in today and I was wondering about that......

Show quoted textHide quoted text
On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 6:50 PM, Eldon <eldonb46@...> wrote:

> **
>
>
> Mouser has fixed the Component Bag Labels !
>
> See my Blog post at:
> http://wa0uwh.blogspot.com/2011/08/mouser-fixed-component-bag-labels.html
>
> Thanks Mouser, and Thanks to the Group users here for the support.
>
> Regards,
> Eldon Brown
>
> 72 - Eldon - WA0UWH - CN88xc - http://WA0UWH.blogspot.com/
>
>
>



--
Paul Mateer, AA9GG
Elan Engineering Corp.
www.elanengr.com
NAQCC 3123, SKCC 4628, FPQRP 2003


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: An Open Letter to Mouser

2011-08-24 by H. Carl Ott

On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 7:50 PM, Eldon <eldonb46@...> wrote:

Show quoted textHide quoted text
> **
>
>
> Mouser has fixed the Component Bag Labels !
>
> See my Blog post at:
> http://wa0uwh.blogspot.com/2011/08/mouser-fixed-component-bag-labels.html
>
> Thanks Mouser, and Thanks to the Group users here for the support.
>
>
That is good news!

Now if they would just bring back the 1st class USPS shipping option I'd
start ordering more from them.

-carl


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]