Background

If you’ve ever noticed the distinctive smell of a new car’s interior or caught the sharp scent of a freshly painted room, you’ve experienced outgassing in action. While these everyday examples might seem harmless or even nostalgic, outgassing can pose serious challenges for high-precision and risk‑intolerant manufacturing, harming product performance and lifespans. Left unchecked, it can quietly cause bubbling, condensation, and delamination. This issue is especially relevant in durable label production, where label integrity is often critical for regulatory compliance and user safety.

So how does it occur?

What can be done to stop it?

What are labelling specialists doing to prevent outgassing damage?

And how on earth does NASA tie into all of this?

Let’s dig a little deeper.

Outgassing within the context of labels can briefly be summarised as the release of gases or vapours from either the label material itself or the surface it is applied to. Outgassing is often exacerbated by heat, environmental stress or outgassing prone substrates such as polymers or porous metals. Labels that are compromised due to outgassing usually fall short due to adhesives, coatings or films that aren’t properly designed to handle heat, pressure or environmental change.

That’s where durable materials and testing standards come into play. One of the key benchmarks used across industries, is ASTM E595, developed by NASA. This standard measures how much mass a material loses as vapour under heat and vacuum. Labels that pass E595 testing must stay below a total mass loss of 1.0% and a condensable residue limit of 0.1%. NASA’s ASTM E595 testing was originally developed to assess the outgassing behaviour of materials used in spacecraft. It is now widely referenced in commercial applications on the basis that if materials stable enough for space, they are more than good enough for terrestrial use.

For industries where product integrity can’t be left to chance, choosing low-outgassing labels is a simple way to ensuring that critical information remains attached and legible. Our CILS-8900 labels have passed E595 testing, utilising films and adhesives engineered for stability and low volatility. Despite our labels being specifically engineered for aerospace applications, our outgassing resistant labels have also been utilised by leading electronics and automotive manufacturers. In these applications, this testing is relevant for manufacturers utilising ID labels near optics, high-reliability connectors or inside sealed, low-pressure housings.

To summarise, whether your company is designing high-precision instruments for satellites or smartphone components, selecting low-outgassing, durable labelling is a simple way to protect performance, safety and compliance over the full lifecycle of your product.

To learn more about our outgassing labels and whether they are the right fit for your needs, speak to one of our specialists today.