Labelling Solutions University of Leeds successfully
implements Managing a vast and diverse array of assets across a large university campus presents unique challenges, particularly when it comes to eff ective asset identification and tracking. The University of Leeds faced such a challenge as part of a comprehensive campus-wide asset management project. With over 100,000 items the university needed a reliable, versatile solution capable of producing durable labels suitable for various environments and materials.
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stablished in 1904, the University of Leeds is one of the largest universities in the UK. They are renowned globally for the quality of their research and teaching and ranked in the top 100 universities in the world. With over 37,000 students and seven faculties (departments), the university has 1,230 acres (498 ha) of land in total, with the main campus taking up 98 acres (40 ha). There are many items of equipment or assets to manage and report on across the university.
As part of a campus wide project their estates team had a requirement to record almost every asset across the university campus from smoke detectors to electrical switch gear, copiers, printers, lab equipment, air con units – in fact pretty much everything on their whole estate. The initial phase required more than 100,000 items to be labelled.
The items to be labelled are in a wide range of locations with an equally wide range of environmental conditions. This requires asset labels which will be used internally, externally, in laboratories, boiler rooms, plant rooms and kitchens. The labels would also be fixed on a wide range of materials including glass, plastic, metal pipes and more. In the first instance, Oliver Renshaw, business systems manager at the University of Leeds was approached by his university estates colleagues and asked to help. Very quickly he recognised that paper or synthetic
labels using inkjet or dry toner printing wouldn’t be up to the job. They also had an ongoing requirement that if at any point in the future an asset was replaced, then the asset number needed to be the same and a new label produced as quickly as possible. Oliver had come across the DTM Print Catalyst V8e Laser Marking System a few weeks earlier. “To be honest, I had originally dismissed it as I thought there wouldn’t be much of an internal need for it, but was now worth another look for this project,” recalls Oliver. The project team agreed the Catalyst V8e could be considered as with it they could produce labels on a rolling schedule, so the initial time frame for production was not too tight. And having the device on-site meant at any point in the future they could produce single labels very quickly, on-demand and at very low cost. Overall, even with the up-front cost of the Catalyst V8e printer, the overall project costs were lower than outsourcing labels. DTM Print provided some sample labels for application and environmental testing and analysis. After a few weeks, the project team at the University of Leeds were satisfied the Catalyst V8e would be up to the job and gave it their approval.
Since taking delivery of the printer, so far over 80,000 customised labels have been prepared. The project is on-going with labels being produced most days. They have also found other customers within the university, for example the IT Department for asset tagging of their computers, and the School of Dentistry for QR code stickers to be used in their teaching spaces.
Oliver is very happy with the solution and states: “Whilst the Catalyst V8e is a niche device, we are finding all sorts of user cases across the university campus as we have such a wide range of disciplines and markets. So, in the long term this has been a really good opportunity and investment for the university.”
24
July/August 2026
www.convertermag.com
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