Learn how ink manufacturers insurance helps ink & pottery industry manufacturing businesses protect themselves against the many complex risks they face every day. Whether your business is large or small, or you make one or many products – you need the right commercial insurance program to protect you.
Ink Manufacturers Insurance
Ink Manufacturers Insurance. Ink manufacturers produce a wide variety of inks ranging from inks used in pens for handwriting to tattoo inks used in coloring the skin to specialized magnetic inks used in the printing industry. Inks can be used to print on plain or coated paper, various types of metal and plastic, and assorted composites. Ink is made by mixing of pigments or dyes with an oil-based or solvent-based medium, grinding it, then packaging for shipment.
The final product is typically in liquid, paste, or powder form. While some ink contains toxic chemicals or additives, such as heavy metals to make particular colors, nontoxic soy and water-based mediums are being increasingly used to reduce the environmental impact.
As the owner of an ink manufacturing business, you have a lot of responsibilities to attend to. You must ensure that you are meeting the specifications of your clients, provide the highest quality products, attend to the needs of your employees, and so much more.
Despite your best efforts to ensure that all of the aspects of your ink manufacturing business are being met, there’s always a chance that the unexpected can happen. If you’re lucky, your business will run smoothly throughout the duration of your operations; however, it’s likely that at one time or another, some type of liability incident will occur. As the saying goes, you should expect the unexpected; and the best way to do just that is by protecting your ink manufacturing business with the right type ofink manufacturers insurancecoverage.
Why Ink Manufacturing Insurance Is Important
There are so many “what if’s” that can happen in the business world. This is true across all industries, including ink manufacturing. A piece of machinery could malfunction while an employee is operating it, resulting in a serious injury. One of your suppliers could trip over a wire that wasn’t clearly marked with a “caution” sign. Disgruntled clients could file a lawsuit against you, citing negligence on the behalf of your company. These are just some of the issues that you could end up experiencing in the ink manufacturing industry.
As the owner and operator of your business, the responsibility of liabilities falls on your shoulders. That means that if someone takes legal action against your business or if a third-party or employee is injured, you will be held liable for the costs that are associated with these types of incidents. As you can imagine, the expense of liability issues can be astronomical and have the potential of putting you in serious financial turmoil.
For this reason, having the right type of ink manufacturers insurance coverage is absolutely essential. Insurance could mean the difference between keeping your business up and running and possibly losing everything.
Types Of Insurance For Ink Manufacturers
The specific type of insurance coverage that you will need depends on a variety of factors; the size of your business, the number of people that you employee, the type of equipment that you use, and so on. However, with that said, there are certain types of ink manufacturers insurance policies that all ink manufacturing companies should invest in. Some of these policies include the following:
- Commercial General Liability– This type of coverage protects you from third-party claims, including bodily injuries and property damages. For instance, if anyone other than an employee slips and falls on your business property, you would be responsible for paying the medical fees that are associated with the injury. Should the individual decide to file a lawsuit against you, you will have to provide a lawyer, pay court fees, and pay for any damages that a judge holds you liable for. If you have commercial property insurance, you can avoid paying these massive costs out of your own pocket.
- Commercial Property– Should your commercial property be damaged in a fire, a weather-related event, or if a theft or act of negligence occurs on your property, you’ll be thankful that you have commercial property insurance. This type of coverage will help to pay for the cost of any necessary repairs or replacements so that you don’t have to shell the cash out of your own pocket.
- Products Liability– If someone takes legal action against you, stating that your products caused harm or physically damaged their property, products liability insurance will assist with the costs. For instance, if someone says that the ink you produced was not working properly and damaged their clothing, products liability would help to pay for the cost of replacing and/or repairing the client’s damaged property.
- Workers’ Compensation– This type of insurance helps to pay for any employee-related accidents or illnesses that occur on the job. It will cover the cost of medical bills and lost wages, benefiting both you and your employees.
The above are just a handful of the ink manufacturers insurance protections that ink manufacturing businesses need to have in place.
Ink Products Manufacturing’s Perils And Risks
Property exposuresconsist of an office, plant, and warehouse or yard for storage of raw materials and finished goods. Ignition sources include electrical wiring, heating systems, production machinery, and buildup of static electricity and sparks. Hazards vary depending on the flammability of the medium mixed with the ink pigment. With soy or water-based ink, the exposure to fire is limited. If the mediums use resins, solvents, or other reactive chemicals, the fire and explosion potential is high and must be controlled, including separation during storage or processing, and proper ventilation to control fumes, dust, and vapors.
Storage areas should be kept cool to prevent explosions. Poor housekeeping may be a serious fire hazard. Unless disposed of properly, greasy, oily rags (such as those used to clean the machinery) can cause a fire without a separate ignition source. Raw materials and finished stock may be susceptible to loss by fire, moisture, or temperature change.
Equipment breakdown exposuresinclude malfunctioning production equipment, ventilation electrical control panels and other apparatus. A lengthy breakdown to production machinery could result in a severe loss, both direct and under time element.
Crime exposuresare chiefly from employee theft. Background checks should be conducted on all employees. There must be a separation of duties between persons handling deposits and disbursem*nts and handling bank statements. The manufacturer should have security methods in place to prevent theft.
Inland marine exposuresinclude accounts receivable if the manufacturer offers credit, computers (which may include computer-run production equipment), goods in transit, and valuable papers and records for customers’ and suppliers’ information. Ink manufacturers typically have laboratories with significant schedules of EDP equipment for spectrographic analysis, color matching, and other quality control functions. The main causes of loss during transport are fire, water, and loss by spill or contamination, especially during a collision.
Premises liability exposurescan be significant due to the potential for contamination and the need for evacuation that may occur if there is a chemical release. Solvents may be reactive (flammable, corrosive or explosive), toxic or both. Fumes and vapors, both on premises and off, can affect visitors, neighbors and passersby.
Evacuation plans should be in place. The fire department must be aware of the chemicals in use so that they can have appropriate gear on hand to control any fire or vapor release. If the manufacturer conducts tours, visitors may be injured by slips, trips, or falls.
Products liability exposureis generally low unless the ink is to be used in products designed for human consumption, for medical purposes, or inserted under the skin. Ink used for food or drug packages may be regulated by the FDA due to the potential for the ink to leak into the food or drug, causing illness.
Environmental impairment exposurecan be light if mediums are soy or water-based, or high if solvent-based. Heavy metals used in producing particular colors of ink may be hazardous. Vapors, fumes, or spillage can contaminate ground, air or waterways. Processes may cause thermal or noise pollution. Disposal of wastes must adhere to all federal and state guidelines.
Business auto exposureis very high if the manufacturer transports materials using its own tanker trucks due to the potential for overturn and spillage. Drivers should be trained in spill containment, have an appropriate license with a Hazardous Materials endorsem*nt, and an acceptable MVR. All vehicles must be well maintained, particularly tankers, with documentation kept in a central location. Manufacturers generally have private passenger fleets used by sales representatives. There should be written procedures regarding the private use of these vehicles by others.
Workers compensationexposures may be high. If chemicals are used, they may be toxic or caustic, with a high potential for injury to eyes, lungs, or skin. Injuries from production machinery are common, as are burns, slips, trips, falls, foreign objects in the eye, hearing impairment from noise, back injuries from lifting and other material handling, and repetitive motion injuries. Workstations should be ergonomically designed.
Employees must be fully informed as to the potential effects of any chemicals, including long-term occupational disease hazards, so that they can take action as quickly as possible. Eyes must be protected and eye wash areas should be close to all vats.
Ink Manufacturers Insurance – The Bottom Line
We hope this article onink manufacturers insurancehas been informative. To find out exactly what type of coverage you need and how much you should invest in, speak to a reputable commercial insurance brokerage.
