What is the advantage to be Irreversible?

2018/06/18

What is the advantage of being irreversible?

Customers often ask us "Why irreversible? Any merits?"

・Once in a while, I am asked by the customer what is the advantage they get from the irreversible indicators. This is actually good question because it may be reasonable for them to think firstly that reversible is better in terms of cost and usability.

However this is not true actually when you use the indicator to check the historical temperature surge.
・The biggest benefit of being irreversible is that you can't revert the result intentionally. As the temprature rised and passed across the threshold temperature, the color remains the same even after the temperature goes down to normal temperature.
・Let me explain this using a exemplary case. When you put the irreversible indicator on the parts whose normal tempretureand limit temperature are 40C and 70C respectively. If you put irreversible label on the surface and the surface of the part is heated up until over 70C. After a while, the surface's temperature goes down and the operator checks the label color. Though it's room temperature around him, the label shows that "there was a temperature surge above 70C in the past", because it is irreversile.

What happens if this is reversible?

・If this is reversible, the temperature color goes back to the original in the room temperature and the operator can't find what was going on in the past. This means that reversible indicator is not fit for the temperature monitoring for process control or safety control to check the temperature history.

So what is the merit of reversible?

・Reversible label is not fit for the above objectives but it has its own advantage. The merit of being resuable is literally that you can use it multiple times. For exapmle, prevention of buring is one of the most typical applications. If you put the reversible label on the hot surface, you can prevent the workers from touching them unintentionally. If this is irreversible, you have to replace the labels many times, maybe hundreds of times in a year. This reversible type is also good for checking the temperature of cables or electronic parts which should not go overheat.