Titebonds response to shelf life

5/16/2009

A man that goes by the name Don2Laughs from Lumberjocks sent this letter to Titebond in reference about wood glue and it's shelf life.

How can I determine the age of this product? There is a faint 7
digits stamped on the upper portion of the (16 oz) bottle but it must
be code of some kind. What is your reason for not posting the date
clearly on the label?
Thanks,
Don2Laughs

He sent their respose to me. I asked him if he cared if I share this with my readers and he was more than willing to let me.
So first of all, Thank you to Don2Laughs for this great info.

Allison, I recently contacted TiteBond and here is there respons … very interesting. I asked why they didn’t post the manufacture date and … read their response:
The first digit of the lot number is a number. It is the last digit of
the year of manufacture. The second digit is a letter. It indicates the
month. We use the letters A through M, excluding the letter I. The third
digit is a number. It represents the manufacturing division the product
was made for. The next four numbers represent the internal lot or batch
number. That is followed by a decimal point and two numbers which
represent the day of manufacture.
Example:
6L12455.23 – This material was manufactured on November 23rd of 2006.
OR
The first digit of the lot number is a number. It is the last digit of
the year of manufacture. The second digit is a letter. It indicates the
month. We use the letters A through M, excluding the letter I. The
remaining number and/or letter combinations are an internal lot number.
Example:
9L12455 – This material was manufacturer in November of 1999.
OR
The first digit represents A for America (made in), the second digit is
the last digit of the year of manufacture, the third and fourth digits
represent the month, the fifth and sixth digits represent the day of the
month and the last four digits represent the lot number.
Example:
A904270023 – This material was manufactured on April 24, 2009

When we place the actual date or an expiration date on the material, the
retailers have complained and enough sent them back that we no longer
could do so.
We warrant the product for one year, because we have no control over how
the Titebond III is stored. When stored well, the product has a usable
shelf life of 4 years.

Please retweet this or stumble it. I think it's good information!
Thanks, Allison of Wood Alley