
	Friday Fax A Weekly Summary of Polywater^® News of Incredible Importance

Issue #573

A Recommended Shelf Life Statement was added to the website to help you respond to your customers' questions about the shelf life of various Polywater products.

Last week's article on shelf life raises two questions: 1) What is the shelf life of any particular Polywater product? ... and ... 2) How can you date the samples or consignment products in your (or your customers') possession? To help with the first, we've added this Recommended Shelf Life Statement to the website to help you respond to customer questions about the shelf life of various Polywater products. For the second, know this: each carton, pail, or drum of product produced by Polywater is stamped with a 5-digit (and rarely 6-digit) date code on the product label. Typically this is located in the lower left-hand corner of the label. The code is based on the Julian dating system. The first digit is the year, the next three are the day of that year, and the last one or two is the batch number produced that day. As example, the code "92546" represents product produced in batch #6 on the 254th day of 2009 (today!). That's fresh. Anything with a leading number of 4, 5, 6, or 7 may be too old and should be discussed with the factory for disposition. Sealant samples with early 2008 dates should probably be discarded.

Occasionally Polywater is asked for product storage instructions by distributors or agents holding consignment.

In a related topic ... Polywater is sometimes asked for product storage instructions by distributors or agents holding consignment. Here are the basics:

Use FIFO--first in, first out. Good stock rotation is essential for products with a limited shelf life.
Avoid storage in direct sunlight. UV rays can penetrate some packaging and degrade chemical products. Most of our packaging has been chosen to reduce this risk, but it's always a good practice to follow.
Keep aerosols and cleaners with flash points away from heat sources and flame. Aerosols should be kept at temperatures under 120°F (49°C).
Keep adhesives, sealants and tin-packaged cleaners dry and relatively cool (i.e., < 90 - 100°F or 32 - 38°C). Adhesives and sealants are reactive with water. Metal packaging will rust in the presence of moisture, compromising the integrity of the package.
Leave products in original packaging until ready for sale or use.
Discard any package containing critters (live or dead), regardless of date code.

A simple way to remember all this is with an acronym: CRUD (cool and critter-free, rotated, unopened, dry and dark). If you don't, you may end up selling crud.

The Friday Fax Editor's Joke of the Week

The Joke

Blonde vs. Trucker. A trucker came into a truck stop cafe and placed his order. He said, "I want three flat tires, a pair of headlights, and a pair of running boards." The brand new blonde waitress, not wanting to appear stupid, went to the kitchen and said to the cook, "This guy out there just ordered three flat tires, a pair of headlights and a pair of running boards. What does he think this place is, an auto parts store?" The cook said, "No, three flat tires means three pancakes, a pair of headlights is two eggs sunny side up, and running boards are two slices of crisp bacon." The blonde said, "Oh, okay." She thought about it for a moment and then spooned up a bowl of baked beans and gave it to the customer. The trucker asked, "What are the beans for, Blondie?" She replied, "I thought while you were waiting for the flat tires, the headlights, and the running boards, you might as well gas up!"

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American Polywater Corporation -- The world's leading manufacturer of cable pulling lubricants, cable cleaners, and MRO & construction chemicals.
P.O. Box 53 | Stillwater, MN 55082 USA
1-(651) 430-2270 (Voice) | 1-(651) 430-3634 (Fax)
1-(800) 328-9384 (Toll-Free US/Canada Only)