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Increasing technological advances and a competing marketplace have made the entry level ID card printer system much more advanced in recent weeks. Just a few years back, a basic system to make a plastic, full color id card cost a few thousand dollars. As in all technology, the capabilities have become much more advanced for a much more reasonable price.

Current basic entry level ID card printers are simple in set up and provide durable plastic ID cards that are full color. Organizations that use badge printers include: K-12 schools, small businesses, clubs that identify their members and retail establishments that track member purchases by loyalty cards. 

All basic id card printers have the capability of printing black on a standard CR-80 plastic card.  This card size is the same as your credit card.  The majority of standard printers also have the capability of printing a single side of the card in full color.  The printer ribbon that prints full color is an YMCKO print ribbon.  This ribbon contains all of the panels of color needed to provide a vast array of color tones and hues

Current ID card printers are available in a single or dual side option.  The single side printer is like a standard copy machine.  It will print front side only.  To print the back, you must reinsert the card into the feeder so that the printer can then make another pass of the card and print the back side.  A dual sided printer contains a flipper that will allow the printer to make a complete print of the front side of the card and then flip the card over to print black on the back of the card prior to extracting the card from the printer.

Basic card printers also have the option of adding an encoder module to the printer.  The printer is then able to add information into a card to make it work with applications such as door access systems.  Specific cards that can be encoded include:  contact and contactless smart cards, proximity cards and magnetic stripe cards.

Older basic ID card printers were capable of printing on a stand alone computer system.  Newer models of entry level ID card printers have Ethernet and internal print server options that allow for printing of the cards from a shared network.

Card stock options are also now expanded from older versions if id card printers.  Prior to newer models, the option of printing was limited to cards that were 30 mil thick.  This is a standard size card used for credit cards and driver’s licenses.  Now, cards from 9 mil to 40 mil thick can be printed through entry level card printer systems.  Different sized cards are becoming more popular for various applications.

The thinner 9 mil cards are often used to health care, parking, membership and customer loyalty programs.  The cards are easily sent in the mail.

Thicker cards in the 40 mil size are normally proximity cards.  Now, even these cards can be directly printed on with entry level as well as advanced printers.

An additional printing type is the rewritable card.  A card used, such as a visitor badge, may only be needed for a few days or even hours.  Cards such as these can be erased and rewritten multiple times.  Special heat sensitive cards passing under the heat of the printer’s printhead can be updated in a matter of seconds.  Popular uses for this type of card are loyalty cards with updated points, library cards with current due dates or personalized volunteer badges.

Photo id card systems have become more capable and more economical in the past few years.  Professional looking badges are easier to make with the more recent technological advances in printing capabilities.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 12:11 pm and is filed under Company resources. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.