Plastic cards are printed using many different processes. Listed below are some of the major processes and their benefits.
Pouch-printed cards can be printed on any material or just about any printer. In this process, the copy is printed smaller than the finished size and then inserted into a 2 1/8″ x 3 3/8″ pouch. The pouch is inserted into a small laminator that heats the pouch and encapsulates the printed copy on the front, back, and all four edges. The edge sealing the lamination prevents moisture from entering, so any material can be used as the core stock. This is a very good method for producing a low volume of cards, but it is slow and requires the purchase of a laminator and pouches. You can go to an outside source and pay to laminate the copy.
Real Card- A real card is a product that can be constructed using paper to print the copy and polyester to make the card. The polyester is coated with a material that accepts inkjet or laser printing. This product comes in an 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheet and can be printed in an inkjet or laser printer. The polyester portion of the forms makes a very good short-term card because it is much more durable than paper. Primary applications for this product are Insurance cards, Membership cards, and Season passes. Depending on your application, you can order the card and carrier as a blank set and print everything on your printer or have the card and carrier preprinted and add the variable data. You can also have the complete sheet made of polyester with die-cut cards if you only need cards and no instructions.
PVC Surface printed cards without lamination- A sheet of PVC is printed front and back on an offset press and then die-cut to the final size. The PVC material is highly durable, and UV coating can be added to give the appearance of lamination without the cost. These cards can add a magnetic stripe to make a very economical gift card. The drawback to this product is that the only protection the copy has is the durability of the UV ink and coating.
PVC cards with lamination. In this process, a sheet of PVC is printed, and lamination is added to the front and back to protect the printing. The sheets are then die-cut down to final card sizes. The most common application for a PVC is a credit card, where a magnetic stripe is used to store the customer’s information. This application works great for magnetic stripes but not for barcodes because the barcode is printed on the surface of the lamination and has no protection.
PVC cards with lamination that is surface printed. One of the most popular ways to make a personalized card is to take a PVC card that has been laminated and cut down to the final size. These cards can have a white or color core stock and be printed in a card printer. This is a very popular way to build a card from scratch or add information to an existing preprinted card. The only drawbacks to surface printed cards are that the printing is on the surface, not under the lamination, and the cost of printing can be high.
Composite Cards– A composite card uses synthetic material for the flexible core stock that can be printed front and back with the copy and barcode. Once the core stock is printed, it is laminated front and back to protect the printing and the barcode. The significant advantage of composite cards is that all the printing and barcodes are under lamination. The barcode can NOT wear off since it is under the lamination. This is the big difference between a composite card and a PVC card. The drawback to a composite card is not all manufacturers use Teslin, which bonds up to 10 times stronger than other synthetics. To lower the cost of a card, a less costly synthetic is used, but the life of a card is drastically reduced. The reason a synthetic core is used instead of paper is synthetic will not absorb moisture and split open like paper, this is important because cards today do not have an edge seal like a pouch printed card.
Teslin Composite Cards- Composite cards constructed of Teslin are manufactured precisely as composite cards on any synthetic core. Teslin bonds to the lamination up to 10 times stronger than other synthetics, making the card or key tags last much longer. Teslin cards are put in a class by themselves because of the physical and chemical bond that takes place with the lamination that you do not get with other synthetic materials.
