Getting started

From formula to product

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One: settle the resin Two: decide whether it is an art material Three: work out whether the closure must be child resistant Four: write the hazard label Five: now size the container Six: choose the applicator last Why this order and not another Keep the five answers with the formula References

The resin comes before the shape, and the label comes before the panel it has to fit on.

One: settle the resin

What is in the product, what will it attack, and how warm will it get in storage and in transit? Those three answers pick a material off the chart. Everything downstream is chosen within that material rather than across all of them.

Two: decide whether it is an art material

If it is, the formulation goes to a toxicologist for review, the toxicologist recommends the precautionary labeling, and the label carries a conformance statement. That review takes time and it is a prerequisite rather than a formality.

Three: work out whether the closure must be child resistant

Read the formula against 16 CFR 1700.14(a) by weight percentage, and where the entry depends on viscosity, measure the viscosity rather than estimating it. The answer changes which closures are available to you, which changes which necks are available, which changes which containers are.

Four: write the hazard label

Signal word, statement of principal hazard and the instruction to read the other cautions, blocked together in a rectangle on the principal display panel and separated on all sides from everything else. Type size comes from the panel area.

Five: now size the container

Because now you know how much uninterrupted rectangular area the label needs, at a minimum type size, on a panel that is not allowed to crowd it. That is a measurable requirement and it rules out some bottles outright.

Six: choose the applicator last

Brush cap, spouted closure, flip top or plain. The catalog holds four brush caps in total, so a brush-applied product has four neck finishes available to it and the choice has to be made while the container is still open.

Why this order and not another

Each step removes options from the next. Done in this order, nothing gets chosen twice. Done backwards, the common ending is a printed label that does not fit the panel of a bottle whose neck does not take the only child resistant closure that fits your formula.

Keep the five answers with the formula

Resin and temperature range, art material classification and the toxicologist’s recommendations, the 1700.14 determination and the viscosity it rests on, the label version, and the container and closure part numbers. A reformulation can move any of them, and most reformulations move more than one.

References

The Davis Pack Supply resin chart, derived from C&P’s own published ratings across 2,150 SKUs and held as <code>material_property</code>: chemical resistance and a service temperature range per material. Glass rates High at 5 of 5 and runs -100 to 300F; PP, HDPE, PET, LDPE, PVC, phenolic and urea rate Good at 4 of 5; PS rates Semi at 2 of 5. The temperature ranges differ sharply even within the same rating, PET topping out at 120F against HDPE’s 190F and PP’s 240F.

16 CFR 1500.14(b)(8), the art materials provision implementing the Labeling of Hazardous Art Materials Act. It makes the labeling requirements of ASTM D-4236 a Commission regulation, effective 18 November 1990, requires that "the producer or repackager of art materials shall submit art material product formulation(s) or reformulation(s) to a toxicologist for review", and sets the conformance statements a compliant label carries. law.cornell.edu

16 CFR 1700.14(a), the household substances requiring special packaging. Those bearing on this craft include methyl alcohol at 4 percent or more by weight, turpentine at 10 percent or more, ethylene glycol at 10 percent or more, liquid solvents at 10 percent or more benzene, toluene, xylene or petroleum distillates with a viscosity under 100 Saybolt universal seconds at 100F, nonemulsion liquids at 10 percent or more hydrocarbons under the same viscosity test, and glue removers containing more than 500 mg of acetonitrile in a single container. law.cornell.edu

16 CFR 1500.121, the placement and conspicuousness rules for hazardous substance labeling. The signal word, the statement of principal hazard and the instruction to read other cautions are "blocked together within a square or rectangular area" on the principal display panel and "separated on all sides from other printed or graphic matter"; type size is set by panel area; signal word and hazard statement are in capitals with a letter height to width ratio no greater than 3 to 1; and cautionary material "obscured or rendered inconspicuous" misbrands the product. law.cornell.edu

Written from 16 CFR 1500.14(b)(8), 1500.121 and 1700.14, and from the catalog as it stood on 17 October 2026. Whether a particular product is an art material, what its chronic hazard labeling should say, and whether its closure must be child resistant are determinations about a specific formula; the first of those is a question for a toxicologist by regulation, and nothing here substitutes for one.