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Card printer - fast identification
Nowadays, rapid data identification is required in many areas of our lives (credit cards, driving licenses, membership cards, employee badges, loyalty cards). The use of identification cards speeds up work processes, reduces the number of errors generated during data entry, minimizes labour costs. With these solutions, all readings can be archived in a single system. All this allows for full control and quick response.
High prevalence of ID cards is related to the ease of their production. Digital plastic card printers offer the ability to create personalized cards in place of their issuance. Plastic card printers can print text, graphics and photos. They can also encode magnetic stripes and have the pin stations to program smart card chips or proximity ones. The process of preparing and printing is fast and uncomplicated.
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| Pic.1. A sample set for printing cards. |
For card printing, the dye sublimation or thermal transfer technologies are used. The used print tape consists of several panels of standard colours - yellow (Y), purple (Magenta) and cyan (C) - YMC. Additionally, coating panel (Overlay), black (K) - YMCKOK or ultraviolet (UV) can still be placed on the tape.
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| Pic.2. Schematic arrangement of the colour panels on the CMYK tape. |
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| Pic.3. Ribbons for card printers. |
Black colour can be printed by the combination of other colours (YMC) and then it is called the composed black. The composed black is not recommended for printing of bar codes, because it does not provide the required contrast when reading. Composed black is also made transparent to infrared readers, because the dye does not have the coal. Therefore, printing of bar codes uses the monochrome ribbons or modular ones with K panel.
Protective coatings that may be imposed on the card is mainly divided into 2 groups: paint coatings (Overlay) or laminate. Paint coating is placed in an extra ribbon panel, while the laminate is applied to the card after printing process. Laminate layer extends the life of the card for 7 years.
As mentioned above, the card printer in addition to standard printing features, can encode the cards on properly used medium.
Magnetic stripe cards were previously available in HiCo (High Coercivity) and LoCo (Low Coercivity).
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| Pic.4. Magnetic stripe card. |
The first ones require larger magnetic field to encode. LoCo cards are easier to encode and thus they are cheaper. Cards with magnetic stripe (mostly LoCo) tend to demagnetization of information if it's not a strong magnetic field, which may result in the inability to read the data.
If the functionality of the card is to be higher, it is recommended to use the smart cards. They can store more than 100 times more information than a magnetic stripe.
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| Pic.5. Smart card |
There are pin cards (eg. Smart Card) and contactless (eg. Mifare). Pin cards have been the main application in banking. Proximity cards allow for the identification of some distance from the reader, depending on the applied technology and types of RFID antenna (Radio Frequency Identification). In this case, communication between the transponder and card reader is by radio. Depending on the used technology, the data from the card can operate at frequencies of LF, HF or UHF. Similarly to this, the read can be accessed from other distances.
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| Pic.6. Proximity cards. | |
The most popular proximity card identification system is Mifare. It allows you to read the cards of several centimetres without any problems.
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| Pic.7. Dye-sublimation printer. |
The ability to print business cards on your own is a huge convenience. This can improve the system of records of working time, access to the premises, identifying the employee, and also allow the user to log on to applications in the system. Depending on the number of card users in the plant, the budget printers or high-performance printers designed to print more cards are used.
More information: Maciej Branicki
