Automotive environments don't give labels an easy ride. Under the hood, across wire harnesses and on battery modules, materials face a relentless combination of extreme heat, corrosive fluids and years of UV exposure. For most standard vinyl, polyester or paper labels, that's a slow path to degradation — loss of legibility and eventual failure. In applications where the label carries safety information or enables traceability across the vehicle's lifetime, that's not an acceptable outcome. That's where Tedlar® comes in — a polyvinyl fluoride film (PVF) engineered by DuPont that offers reliability to the most demanding automotive applications.
Originally developed for the aerospace and chemical industries, Tedlar® delivers chemical resistance, UV stability and flame retardancy that standard label materials cannot match.The same properties that make it indispensable in automotive and aerospace also make it increasingly relevant for data center environments, where cables, components and identification labels face similarly harsh operating conditions.
Avery Dennison now offers it in two forms, each designed for a particular job.
White Tedlar®: Identification built to last
The white variant provides a bright, opaque gloss surface and is currently available. Its primary application is cable and wire harness labeling — environments where labels must remain legible and intact across the full lifespan of the vehicle, through exposure to harsh automotive fluids, hydraulic fluids, acids and industrial solvents that would degrade conventional materials over time. It's equally suited to asset tracking on battery modules and under-hood components, where physical stress and corrosive spills are part of daily operational reality.
Transparent Tedlar®: Protection that works invisibly
The transparent variant, available upon request, serves a different purpose. Rather than carrying information itself, it functions as a high-performance protective overlaminate — a crystal-clear, non-yellowing film applied directly over printed graphics, inks or underlying metals. When automotive solvents or degreasers wash over a component, they encounter the Tedlar® layer first. The critical information underneath stays intact. It also has a specific role in cable label production, enabling the manufacture of wraparound labels built to withstand the same demanding conditions as the underlying wiring.
For applications with fire safety requirements, both variants are available with self-extinguishing properties that meet stringent aerospace and automotive burn standards — making Tedlar® appropriate wherever flame retardancy forms part of the specification.
Built to outlast the vehicle
The benchmark for automotive label materials is seemingly straightforward: the label should last as long as the component it identifies. For many applications, that means outlasting the vehicle itself. Tedlar® is one of the few label materials engineered to meet that standard — because it was originally designed for something harder.
