How Epson Portland caught a 30-year-old SDS with SDS Manager’s automatic updates
At Epson’s Portland ink and cartridge plant, automatic update searches keep every safety data sheet current — including one that had sat unchanged for three decades.
- Industry
- Printer ink & ink cartridge manufacturing
- Location
- Portland, Oregon
- Company
- Epson Portland Inc., part of the global Epson group
- Features used
- Automatic SDS updates · SDS library · Proprietary data protection
- 30Years old: the outdated SDS discovered and replaced automatically
- 40Years of manufacturing at Epson’s first U.S. plant
- 100%Of the ink and cartridges Epson sells in the Western Hemisphere is made here
- 5/5Customer rating
We had an SDS on our books that was 30 years old. SDS Manager discovered this and automatically uploaded the new one.
Epson Portland Inc. opened in 1986 as Epson’s first U.S. manufacturing plant. Today, printer ink and ink cartridges roll off its Oregon lines for one of the world’s best-known printing brands — and behind every formulation sits a safety data sheet. Keeping that library accurate is where Pete Maes and his team had run out of patience with the old way of working.
A chemical library is only as good as its newest update. Epson Portland’s problem was the opposite: files piled into a single unmanageable location, endless manual re-sorting — and at least one SDS that had gone untouched for 30 years. Here is what changed.
The challenge
- 1Every SDS landed in one location, impossible to manage at volume
- 2Files had to be re-sorted and re-sent in a particular structure just to populate the library properly
- 3Slow customer-service responses left problems sitting
- 4Documents outdated for 30 years
The solution: updates that find themselves
SDS Manager searches for new versions automatically, uploads them in real time, and keeps Epson’s proprietary substance data private.
Automatic updates, automatic compliance
SDS Manager continuously searches for updated safety data sheets and uploads them as they publish. For Pete, that’s the feature doing the most compliance work: code requirements stay met, and employees always have the most current information readily available.
The 30-year-old SDS
An SDS had been sitting on Epson Portland’s books for 30 years, unnoticed and long out of date. SDS Manager discovered it and automatically uploaded the current version. No audit, no manual check: the system simply caught it.
Proprietary data stays proprietary
Ink formulations are competitive territory. The feature Pete rates highest is the ability to keep SDS names and usage information safe and proprietary. Meaning, their chemical library stays current without being exposed.
The result: a library that stays current on its own
- Compliance automatic search and upload of SDS updates keeps code requirements met and current information in employees’ hands
- Accuracy a 30-year-old SDS was discovered and replaced automatically
- Confidentiality SDS names and usage remain safe and proprietary
- Outlook after testing, the team expects SDS updating to become not only easier, but accurate and real-time
