Learn more about plastic cards
and plastic card printing

Plastic Cards

Plastic cards are made from high durable pvc plastic, they are credit card size cards 54mm x 85mm. Cards can be supplied in various thickness such as 30mil or 10mil. 30 mil is the most common. Cards come manufactured in white but can also be ordered in various other colours.

Thermal Transfer Printing and/or Dye Sublimation

All plastic card printers feature the same basic printing operations; dye sublimation and/or thermal transfer printing. Both techniques involve heating a thermal print head while in contact with a ribbon. However, thermal transfer printing differs from dye sublimation in that thermal transfer uses ink rather than dye. In thermal transfer printing, heat melts the ink on the ribbon, causing it to transfer to the card surface. In dye sublimation, heat vaporizes the ribbon dye, which then permeates the plastic card.

Monochrome Printing

This is where a single colour ribbon i.e. black ribbon, red ribbon, gold ribbon is used in a monochrome printer such as the Zebra P330m.This is a single colour which is printed down onto the card.

Full Colour Printing

A YMCKO ribbon is used for printing full colour onto a card. The YMCKO ribbon stands for: Yellow Magenta Cyan Black Overlay. This ribbon is used for printing full colour to the front only or if doing dual sided printing a YMCKOK ribbon is used. Some lamination printers such as the HDP5000 and the P540i only use a YMCK with no Overlay.

Dual Sided Printing

This is where printing is done on both sides of the card in one print job. The printer will print on the front of the card and then the card goes into a flipper mechanism where the card is flipped over and then prints on the back of the card. Both the YMCKO ribbons and the YMCKOK ribbon can be used for dual sided printing. 

Mag-stripe encoding

Cards can be supplied with a magnetic stripe. This is a piece of magnetic tape that is laminated onto the back of a card. This stripe has 3 tracks that can be encoded. Track 1 is alphanumeric and track 2 & 3 are numeric only. Mag-encoder can be bough fitted with your card printer or your existing card printer can be upgraded with a field install mag-encoder. This allows the user to print and encode at the same time. You can also purchase stand alone mag-stripe reader with USB conne3ction that you can connect to PCﾒs or Tills and scan in the data on the mag-stripe. 

Lamination Printing

With printers such as the Fargo HDP5000 and the Zebra P640i they also come with a laminator. This is where the card is printed using a YMCK or YMCKK ribbon, the card is then sent to the lamination station this is where a 1 mil plastic laminate is laid down onto the card. These are used where the life of a printed card needs to be increased.

Smart Card Encoding

Card printers can be fitted with a smart card encoder. This is where the card is printed and then the chip in the smart card is encoded. For contact cards and additional smart card contact station can also be supplied in the printer.