Archive for the ‘Plastic Card Printing’ Category

Plastic ID cards aren’t just for labelling people

Friday, February 10th, 2012

The most common use of the plastic card printers that we supply is for producing cards for people, cards that are used for things like ID cards, membership cards or loyalty cards.

That’s not all that plastic card printers can be used for though, over the years we’ve worked with people that have used the equipment that we supply for all kinds of different applications, like:

Labelling equipment on off-shore drilling rigs

Producing certificates of authenticity and guarantees to go with jewellery and watches

Labelling plumbing and heating pipes in houses

Printing neo-natal scans for expecting couples

Making special luggage tags for flight crew

These are just a few of the innovative applications that our customers have found for our plastic card printers. If you’d like to find out more about card printers or any of the other equipment that we supply, call ID Management Systems on 0800 408 1471 and we’ll be happy to help.

ID Management YouTube channel

Sunday, February 5th, 2012

We like to help people to learn more about plastic card printers and all of the other things that we supply, so we’ve started our own channel on YouTube to show people more about card machines.

We’ll be posting lots of different videos, including product demos, technical support information and useful tips, so if you’d like to find out more about plastic card printers, head to http://www.youtube.com/user/IDManagementSystems and take a look.

If there’s anything you’d like to see a video about, let us know at technical@idmanagement.com and we’ll see if we can sort something out for you.

Magicard Pronto

Magicard Pronto plastic card printer

Saturday, February 4th, 2012

We hear from lots of people that want a low cost plastic card printer for producing small volumes of high quality plastic cards. It’s understandable to want to get a printer as cheaply as possible, but you also want to make sure that you get a good plastic card printer that will produce good cards.

The Magicard Pronto is a great little card machine. This plastic card printer is designed for users who are looking to get a start at producing their own plastic cards and are looking to produce perhaps a couple of hundred cards a year in small volumes.

Despite being low-cost, the Magicard Pronto doesn’t economise where it matters. The print from this machine is great 300 dpi that is comparable with machines that cost twice as much as it.

If you’d like to find out more about the Magicard Pronto or any of the other plastic card printers that we supply, call ID Management Systems on 0800 408 1471 and we’ll be happy to help.

Magicard Pronto

Magicard Pronto

Special deals on refurbished plastic card printers

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

As well as the huge number of new plastic card printers that we supply to our customers from major brands like Evolis, Fargo and Magicard, we also deal in a number of pre-used printers.

All pre-used printers are refurbished to a very high standard by our technical staff and have any faults repaired, usually replacing any worn out components with new ones. They will also have been subjected to rigorous testing to make sure that we are happy with their performance, and to give you piece of mind we even give our own 90 day warranty on refurbished printers so you know that you’ll be getting a good quality machine for your money,

So if you’re looking to get hold of a high quality plastic card printer on a tight budget, why not call us on 0800 408 1471, and ask us about our special deals on refurbished plastic card printers?

Special sized plastic cards

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

The vast majority of plastic card printers that we supply are specifically intended to print onto cards that are CR80 sized, which is roughly 86*54mm, but that doesn’t mean that all cards will end up being the same size.

A popular product that we supply is our 3-up key tags. These are CR80 sized PVC cards that are die-cut so that when you have printed them you can break the card down into three equal sized tags, each with a pre-punched hole in them. These are a great and efficient way of printing individualised tags that can be used for a variety of purposes, like labelling equipment or making key-ring tags.

In addition to 3-up key tags, we also supply 2-up key tags, which are very similar but split into two larger tags. We can also supply other shapes and sizes of pre-punched tags, all based around a standard CR80 sized card.

If you’re looking for something particularly specific, we can even produce custom punched cards for you.

If you’d like to find out more about the range of plastic cards that we can supply, call ID Management Systems on 0800 408 1471 and we’ll be happy to help.

Help us to specify your plastic card solution

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Our website shows a large range of the different products that we supply and includes off-the-shelf systems designed to work for a lot of common applications and a substantial choice of different consumables and card accessories to go with it, but if you’re looking to set-up a new system for producing staff ID card or membership or loyalty cards then it’s not just about the printer, you also need to make sure that you get enough cards, printer ribbons, cleaning consumables and card accessories to go with it.

If you’d like to have a complete solution specified for you, complete with all the bits that you need and with the potential for extra discounts on your requirement than you’ll find on our website, call us on 0800 408 1471 and talk to one of our staff and they’ll be able to help you figure out exactly what you need.

What types of cards can plastic card printers print onto?

Friday, January 27th, 2012

Unlike most printers which print onto paper, the ID card printers that we supply are designed specifically for printing onto plastic. The most common cards are CR80 in size, which is an international standard that most people know as “credit card sized”, roughly 86*54mm. Other sizes are available, but anything larger than CR80 requires extremely specialist and potentially expensive equipment to print on. The most common thickness for cards is 760 micron (slightly over three quarters of a millimetre), but many plastic card printers can handle a range of different card thicknesses, typically from about 250 microns to 1mm.

The majority of plastic cards are made from PVC but alternative materials are available, like PET (polyester) and BioPVC, which is a special form of PVC that is designed to biodegrade and is a good choice for people who are particularly concerned about their environmental credentials.

If you’d like to find out more about the types of plastic cards that are available for your printer, call ID Management Systems on 0800 408 1471 and we’ll be happy to help.

How do plastic card printers work?

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

The plastic card printers that we supply are designed to print to a variety of media, but they can only print to things that have been specifically intended for the purpose.

Unlike a standard laser or inkjet printer, card printers can’t print onto paper, they are specifically designed to print onto cards made of plastic like polyester (PET) or polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

They use a process called dye-sublimation which involves the print-head becoming extremely hot but in a finely controlled way, so that the dye on the ribbon turns gaseous, permeates the surface of the card, then cools rapidly and solidifies.

The colours of the print are applied one at a time, building up the finished print through combining yellow, magenta and cyan print. A lot of card printer ribbons also include a resin black panel, which is used for things like black text and barcodes because it is capable of producing a much sharper and stronger print than a black made up of the different colours.

After the colours have all been applied the printer adds a clear varnish overlay to the card, which helps to protect the print from rough handling and exposure to UV light.

If you’d like to find out more about plastic card printers, call ID Management Systems on 0800 408 1471 and we’ll be happy to help.

Make sure you use high quality plastic cards

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

It’s very important to spend time making sure that you get the right plastic card printer for your solution, but possibly the most important part of your ID card solution can also be one of the cheapest, the plastic cards themselves.

At ID Management Systems we supply a very wide range of different plastic cards, including cards with different technology like smart cards, proximity cards, mag-stripe cards and also cards made of different types of plastic. It can seem very confusing, but if you’re just getting started and your ID cards are purely meant to be for visual identification, then the odds are what you need are standard Fotodek Premier cards.

We recommend Fotodek cards because they are made of an exceedingly good quality PVC with a great finish, meaning that your finished cards will look better and last longer.  These cards aren’t supposed to be the cheapest on the market they’re supposed to be the best.

While we understand why people might want to try and cut corners and save money where they can, plastic cards are something that it is better to aim for quality in. Cheap cards made from poor quality PVC will not print as well or last as long and they may even damage your printer.

If you’d like to find out more about getting the right plastic cards for your ID card solution, call ID Management Systems on 0800 408 1471 and we’ll be happy to help.

Bulk orders for pre-printed plastic cards

Friday, January 20th, 2012

If you’re looking to produce small volumes of printed plastic cards then desktop card printers like the Evolis Pebble 4 are usually the best option, they give you the ability to produce durable plastic cards with vibrant colour printing in very small quantities without increasing your unit cost.

If you’re looking to produce larger numbers of cards with the same design then pre-printed cards can be a very good option. Say, for example, that you need to produce 20,000 cards that will all have the same colour print but be individualised in black, then having the cards lithographically pre-printed for you to individualise them using a dye-sub plastic card printer like the Pebble 4 can work out significantly cheaper, as well as meaning that your plastic cards will have an exceptionally high level of printing, higher than any standard desktop machine would

There are lots of situations where having your plastic cards pre-printed is a very good idea. If you’d like to discuss your requirement with us and see what the best way for you to get your cards produced would be, call ID Management Systems on 0800 408 1471 and we’ll be happy to help.