How an Electrical Contractor Cut Panel Labeling Time by 80%

The Challenge

Lamacoids — the small engraved plastic labels that identify breakers, switches, panels, and equipment in electrical installations — are a standard part of virtually every commercial and industrial job. They’re required by electrical codes for panel identification, and quality-conscious contractors use them throughout their installations for a polished, professional result.

For this Alberta-based electrical contractor, lamacoids were a recurring friction point. Every job required ordering labels from an outside engraving shop: measuring the required sizes, writing up the label specifications, placing an order, waiting 2 to 5 business days for delivery, and paying $5 to $10 per label depending on size and quantity.

On a typical commercial job with 50 to 100 panel labels, that’s $250 to $1,000 in outsourced engraving — before factoring in the lead time delays. Labels that arrived with errors required a re-order cycle. Last-minute changes to panel layouts, which happen regularly on larger projects, sometimes meant labels didn’t arrive until after the inspection date.

The company’s project manager did the math: across their annual project volume, they were spending between $30,000 and $45,000 per year on outsourced lamacoid production. More importantly, they were building their project schedules around an external vendor’s turnaround time.

The Solution

After a conversation with Synergy Products, the contractor decided to bring lamacoid production in-house with an Epilog Zing 24 — a compact desktop CO₂ laser with a 24” × 12” work area, designed for engraving operations that don’t require a large-format bed.

The Zing 24 was the right fit for this application. Lamacoids are small — most run between 1” × 3” and 2” × 4” — and they’re produced in batches. The 24” bed handles a full sheet of Rowmark LaserMax efficiently, running 20 to 40 labels per sheet depending on size, with minimal material waste. The machine’s footprint is compact enough to fit in the contractor’s shop without dedicated floor space.

Rowmark LaserMax engraving plastic was selected as the primary material — specifically the white-on-black and black-on-white combinations standard for electrical panel labeling. The two-ply construction engraves cleanly to produce sharp, high-contrast text at small sizes, and the acrylic material meets the durability requirements for permanent electrical installations.

Synergy Products configured the Epilog with settings optimized for standard LaserMax thicknesses and trained the shop’s designated operator on the full production workflow: importing a label layout from the design software, tiling a sheet for batch production, setting cut and engrave passes, and unloading finished labels.

Results

The first production run was completed the week after installation. A job that would have taken 3 days for outsourced labels — including order placement, production, and shipping — was done in 45 minutes from design to finished product.

Per-label cost dropped dramatically. A sheet of Rowmark LaserMax produces approximately 30 standard-size labels. At roughly $8 per sheet, that’s under $0.30 per label in material cost, compared to $5 to $10 outsourced. Electricity and operator time are negligible additions. For a 100-label job, the cost difference is roughly $700 versus $30.

Lead time dropped from days to under an hour. Last-minute panel changes — a frequent occurrence on large commercial projects — are now handled same-day. The operator pulls up the job file, adjusts the label text, runs the sheet, and delivers finished labels within the hour.

Errors and re-orders are effectively eliminated. When the contractor produces their own labels, label text is verified against the panel schedule before the job runs. There’s no translation layer between the electrician’s spec and an outside shop’s interpretation. If something needs to change, it changes in 5 minutes.

The project manager tracked costs carefully through the first quarter after installation. At the contractor’s project volume, the Epilog Zing 24 paid for itself in under three months — purely on outsourcing cost savings. Everything after that is margin improvement.

Custom sizes are no longer a premium. One-off sizes that previously required a special-order surcharge from the engraving shop — odd dimensions, non-standard shapes, labels for custom enclosures — are now produced at the same cost as standard sizes. The laser doesn’t care about quantity minimums.

Equipment Used

• Epilog Zing 24 — desktop CO₂ laser, 24” × 12” work area, ideal for small-format engraving production
• Rowmark LaserMax — two-ply acrylic engraving plastic, white/black and black/white combinations
• Installation and operator training by Synergy Products

What They Said

“[Placeholder — customer quote to be added upon review and approval.]”

— Project Manager, Alberta Electrical Contractor

Lamacoids, equipment labels, or control panel nameplates? Explore Epilog laser systems, browse engraving plastics, or contact Synergy Products to discuss your application. We’re Canada’s authorized Epilog dealer with locations in Delta, BC and Mississauga, ON.