Amazingly, many labs still rely on handwritten, smudged, or half-peeling labels on their vials. If you’ve ever spent half a morning squinting at a frosty cryovial wondering whether it says “A23” or “AZ3,” you know exactly what we mean.
Despite all our progress, vial labelling remains one of the most frustrating and overlooked pain points in modern labs. Here are a few things we still hear (and sometimes see) all too often.
1. The Label Struggle
Manually writing or printing tiny labels for hundreds of vials. Tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone.
Labels that fall off, smudge, or fade after freezing or autoclaving.
Limited space forcing people to invent cryptic codes that no one else can decipher later.
2. The Tracking Nightmare
Barcodes too small or curved to scan properly.
Vials lost between prep and analysis. Or mysteriously reappearing weeks later.
Spreadsheets still being used as the “tracking system.”
No easy way to tell where a sample is, who handled it, or what its status is.
3. The Human Factor
Fatigue from repetitive labelling tasks.
Training new staff on yet another “custom” system of abbreviations and naming conventions.
Miscommunication between teams; “Wait, which sample did you mean?”
The truth is, vial labelling hasn’t kept up with the pace of lab automation. We’re still treating it as a “minor task” but it’s a silent productivity drain that affects everything from data integrity to compliance.
So where’s the opportunity?
Some labs are now rethinking vial identification entirely - moving away from consumable labels and fragile adhesives toward direct, permanent marking. No peeling. No fading. No replacements. Just clear, precise, and lasting identification, even after freezing, washing, or sterilising.
It’s fast, consistent, and takes the human error (and the endless roll of labels) out of the equation.
If you’ve ever had to relabel 500 vials by hand, lost a sample because of a smudged label, or had a barcode refuse to scan when you needed it most… this post is for you.
We’ve got a solution. Visit MultiVial>>