A UK manufacturer of labelling solutions, Silver Fox, developed ‘Fox-In-A-Box’, intending it to be an easy-to-use, cost-effective solution for printing large volumes of cable labels with all the essential components supplied in a single box.

It has been put to the test – which it passed with flying colours – by Bruce Giffen, Managing Director of Waverley Engraving, a St Albans-based specialist in engraving and sign making for the electrical industry.  The company specialises in industrial engraving, such as labels and electrical panels but among its other activities are laser etching, vinyl lettering and producing acrylic letters for sign making.

The Fox-in-a-Box kit includes a Plug’N’Play thermal printer, labelling software, a universal guidance system for heat-shrink and non-shrink tubing, full length thermal ribbon and connecting cables – in fact everything needed to start printing labels. Labels that can be printed include: tie-on cable labels, heat-shrink, non-shrink, wrap-around self- laminating labels and 2-part wire marking. To help with setting up, there is also a manual and the company offers a free bookable telephone support/set-up session that also includes software training. 

Fox-in-a-Box.

Bruce said: “Not only do we now have a reliable thermal printing machine, we get lots of customer support from Silver Fox and we also get regular upgrades to the software as part of the package, which is all done online and is very useful.

“The printer has a smaller footprint than our previous cable labelling machine,” he continued. “It’s quieter, cheaper and easier to run and the printer has three speed settings – which means it can produce labels faster than was possible before and it does it without losing any print quality. In addition, the labels that we produce via the Silver Fox thermal printer have a better ‘look and feel’ than the ones we used to produce.

“We find that Silver Fox’s Labacus Innovator software. gives us more than sufficient control over the label design – in terms of the fonts we can use and the size of the type – than any other labelling method,” said Bruce. “With the Silver Fox product, we can make whatever changes we need to the labels we’re producing.

“We’ve also noticed that, since we’ve been using Silver Fox labelling products, the amount of wastage in producing the labels has fallen dramatically,” he said. “Using other cable label production processes, there was some label wastage when you were setting up the system – and these labels aren’t cheap, with each label costing between 70p and 90p, that could add up! However, there is no wastage at all with the Silver Fox process. Any mistakes on the labels can be amended and there is no need to run a ‘test’ label before starting the labelling process.

“Furthermore, whereas other printers use only a small part of the printer ribbon, the Silver Fox thermal printer offers users two widths of ribbon – and it’s also possible to print two labels together, which further reduces ribbon wastage.

Bruce added: “I’m particularly pleased to see that the Silver Fox labels come loaded onto a cardboard reel and packaged in a cardboard box. That makes recycling these reels and the packaging simple. There’s no need to put any of this into landfill. Contrastingly, other manufacturers supply their labels on plastic spools – which can’t be recycled. So Silver Fox’s labels are demonstrably more environmentally friendly.

“We’re delighted with both the products and the customer service we get from Silver Fox,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll be using more and more Silver Fox products – to help us exceed our customers’ expectations.”