Equipment Tags and Equipment Asset Tags

Equipment tags or equipment labels: choosing the format

People say tag when they picture something rigid on the side of a machine, and label when they picture a sticker. Our equipment tags are adhesive-backed, but the Strongest tier is 12-mil plastic under a 6-mil overlaminate, which handles the impact and gouging that thin labels cannot. There are three formats to choose between:

• Laminated plastic tags: Strongest-tier construction with full-color print, a barcode or QR code, and your numbering. The standard choice for field equipment.
• Metal-look tags: the look of anodized aluminum on 12-mil plastic, with the artwork protected under a thick overlaminate. Quoted per job.
• Tamper-evident tags: VOID-residue or destructible construction for theft-prone or audited equipment.
• For a printed ID label on smooth indoor machines, see equipment labels.

Why a peel-and-stick tag instead of a riveted plate

Aluminum and steel equipment plates are fastened with rivets, screws or epoxy, which means drilling into the equipment you are trying to protect. A Strongest-tier tag relies on a permanent chemical bond instead. It installs by peel-and-stick, conforms to curved surfaces where a rigid plate would not sit flat, and will not corrode or react with a steel or stainless host.

Aluminum also scratches, and a scratched aluminum surface can oxidize. A plastic tag under an overlaminate does not corrode in salt air. Our Hall of Shame shows the cheap version of a metal-look tag: aluminum foil that tore into pieces when it was peeled.

Equipment tag sizes for field ID

Size the tag for the distance it will be read from. On a backhoe or excavator, 1.5 x 3 inches is the standard: it scans from about 4 feet, fits a barcode at scanner-friendly density, and sits at the operator's eye line. Smaller equipment such as drills, saws and grinders usually takes 0.75 x 1.5 inch tags.

Any size and shape is die-cut with no die charge, from 0.25-inch micro-tags to large plates. The designer's standard sizes are 0.75 x 1.5, 0.75 x 2 and 1 x 2 inches, and larger tags are priced by quote.

Numbering equipment asset tags

The number on the tag has to outlive your software. A multi-segment format survives a move from one system to another: for example, an equipment class code, the acquisition year and a four-digit sequence. Oil, gas and utility fleets often encode the asset type, the well or feeder ID and the install year.

Sequential numbering, prefixes and variable data from your spreadsheet are free. If the fleet is already numbered, send the list and we print exactly those IDs, in human-readable text and in a Code 128 barcode or QR code.

Property tags for equipment

A property tag for equipment marks ownership as well as identity. Add a Property Of line, your company name and logo, and an optional return phone number above the equipment ID. Ownership printed on the machine, tied to a number in your records, makes equipment harder to pass off as someone else's.

Our property tags page covers ownership layouts in more detail, and the logo prints in full color at no charge on the Stronger and Strongest tiers.

Installing equipment tags in the field

Place the tag on a flat surface near the operator station so audits do not require climbing, and away from hydraulic-fluid splash zones and surfaces that run hot. Clean the spot first: greasy surfaces should be cleaned with a hot solvent like lacquer thinner and allowed to dry. Our permanent adhesive applies and bonds reliably down to a -10°F install temperature.

QR equipment tags scale well. In one construction fleet case study, Strongest-tier QR tags tracked 10,000 assets, and each one was scanned into storage so it could be found again for the next race. The spec builder gives you the tier and the price for your own fleet in four questions.

Testing equipment tags before a fleet rollout

Before tagging a whole fleet, order samples of all three tiers and put them on the real equipment, including one in the harshest spot you have. Each pack includes an instruction card for surface prep.

The Strongest tier is the usual answer for field equipment. Equipment with smooth painted or bare metal surfaces often does well on the Stronger tier, which costs less per tag at every quantity in the price table.