Custom industrial safety stickers: 4 tactics for facilities, job sites

When it comes to communicating risk to your workers and end-users, you should utilize custom industrial safety stickers that properly convey hazard warnings and crucial instructions.

Safety stickers help with the following:

• Communicating hazards tied to an object’s lifespan.
• Complying with codes and regulations.

An effective safety sticker follows industry standards and best practices to prevent injuries and save lives. This blog post outlines four tactics for creating the most effective safety stickers possible.

Know standards when formatting custom industrial safety stickers

Both U.S. and international standards have been written for product safety stickers, which you should be aware of when formatting content. Here are two prevalent standards recognized domestically and abroad:

• U.S.: ANSI Z535.4 is the standard to review for guidance on format and content. (Example: If you’re a product manufacturer that exports outside of North America, you need to determine not only which safety sticker formats can be used worldwide, but which make the most sense to use, given the requirements of your market and the characteristics of your intended audience.
• Abroad: ISO 3864-2 is an asset to manufacturers in nearly all industries, codifying a set of best practice product safety sticker formats on a basis of worldwide acceptance.

Customize safety sticker content for workers and end-users

Inadequate safety stickers can lead to accidents that result in personal injuries, property damage, costly litigation or death. Before designing safety stickers, study up on your intended end-user.

Tailoring safety sticker messages to meet end-user needs is an integral step. Your warnings will need to speak to all audiences – from trained operators to less skilled workers – in terms they understand and in places they could face potential hazards.

Keep these tips in mind when considering your safety sticker audience:

• Make sure information is clear, concise and actionable.
• Establish a viewable text size for each safety sticker’s environment.
• Use symbols that are easily recognized.

Make sure safety stickers hold up in their environments

Your safety stickers must hold up in their respective environments. Regardless of the effort that went into your product safety sticker design process, it will count for nothing when it comes to defending your warnings in court if your safety stickers prematurely degrade or fall off.

According to ANSI Z535.4, “labels shall have a reasonable expected life with good color stability, symbol legibility and word message legibility.”

To achieve safety sticker durability, be sure to understand your environmental and surface conditions while also using high-quality material.

Use symbols – and choose them wisely

In the past decade, there has been a growing movement to use graphical symbols to convey safety information. These symbols improve safety sticker warnings in many ways, including:

• Overcoming language barriers
• Increasing noticeability
• Delivering clearer communication
• Driving better decision-making
• Accomplishing legal compliance

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