Talking about the Application of Digital Printing Technology in Card Making

The card certificate began in 1958. The first was the application of American drivers' licenses, followed by the appearance of identity cards, medical cards, and credit cards. This enabled the rapid development of card technology and the expansion of the scope of application. It is characterized by the development of microelectronics technology. The ingenious combination of electronic certificates and computerized manufacturing and identification technologies. Therefore, modern document production technology is card production technology.

Compared with Europe and the United States, China's card applications are still far from extensive, and the depth of application is far less than that of developed countries. However, the pace of application of card applications in China and its depth is gratifying. In 1993, with the “Gold Card Project” focused on the application of electronic money, it was formally launched in China. This smart and portable card quickly spread and developed in China, opening up a vast market for China’s electronic information industry.

First, card types

Ordinary ID Card - A card that can be used for identification purposes, with a photo of the user. ID cards are widely used for student and employee identification cards, driver's licenses, various VIP cards, and membership cards.

Barcode Card - Uses international standard black and white stripe patterns to store a large amount of information. It was first used in packaging labels, books, magazines, mails, etc. It can be read quickly and at a short distance. A 2D bar code has recently appeared and can store cardholders. The photo and information contents have been greatly improved, and it is easy to encrypt and prevent falsification, but it cannot be rewritten.

Magnetic (strip) card - The magnetic (strip) card is a specific position on one side of a card-type document, which is affixed with a magnetic tape with a function of storing information, a signature strip, an identification of a hologram, and a card made by printing a convex code. The magnetic stripe has the function of information storage, and signature strips, holograms, and corresponding numbers have the function of identity recognition.

Contact IC Cards - Contact IC cards are referred to as IC cards. The ID card carrier is inlaid (or injection molded) with an IC chip and has a memory or microprocessor function. With large information capacity, it can store human physiological data such as photos and fingerprints. It has good security performance and can run independently without relying on the database. The memory can be divided into multiple application areas to realize one card and multiple uses. Due to the above advantages, the contact type IC card is widely used, but recently it has also been strongly impacted by a non-contact IC card.

Non-contact IC card - Contactless IC card, short for proximity card, inherits the strengths of contactless IC card, and at the same time, it improves the read/write mode of the card. It reads and writes by electrical signal, and adjusts it to wireless inductive reading and writing. This makes non-contact IC cards a great advantage for documents that need to be used frequently or when they need to work outdoors. Of course, because the non-contact IC card manufacturing process is relatively complicated, and the read-write device requires a dedicated security read-write module, the price is higher than that of the contact-type IC card.

An RFID card has similarities with a non-contact card, but it is read-only and contains an RFID antenna embedded in it. The advantage is that the RFID transponder can be read by the reader anywhere inside the magnetic field, and the antenna is buried in many objects (including cards). The radio waves can pass through non-metallic objects and be read. Prevents data from being worn out in everyday use and destroyed under the influence of the environment. Its theoretically readable distance is greater than 10 ft.

Each of the above types of card has its own unique characteristics. In other aspects, such as the card making process, processing technology, and so on, there are great differences, but because PVC materials are generally used, they have the same attributes in printing. Several traditional printing methods such as offset printing, gravure printing, embossing, screen printing, etc. can all be used for card printing. This requires the establishment of a production line to be completed by platemaking and color printing machines. In the case of mass production, the purpose of reducing cost and increasing economic efficiency is to achieve economies of scale. However, for small-volume, personalized prints, this method inevitably has problems of high cost and long cycle, and it is difficult to meet customer requirements, especially for some cards that require attachment of photo images on the card to help identify the identity. Cards, such as student and employee identification cards, special geographical access permits, admission tickets, etc., cannot meet the requirements in this way.

The traditional way of production is to rely on printing / cutting / pasting / glue and other means to carry out many steps. First take a recent photo of himself, and then cut it, modify it to suit the use of the card; then print this person's information on another card material: then combine the photo and card together to make a card. Such cards are easy to forge and falsify, and the production process is time-consuming and labor-intensive, causing great inconvenience to people. In contrast, the digital printing process of the card is only one step, that is, the text patterns and photos are directly printed on the card through the computer system. These cards, usually the same size as credit cards, are made of polyvinyl chloride (or PVC). These cards can be printed on one side or on both sides, either in monochrome or in color. Digital printing methods for cards include thermal transfer and laser ink jet printing.

Second, the advantages of digital card printing

The image quality-digital printing is much better than the image quality produced by the traditional printing methods described above. Not only is the digital photo clearer, but the color can also be calibrated. In addition, the elements in the image are more coordinated and easier to read.

Convenient digital printing provides you with the convenience of producing your cards whenever and wherever you like. Personalized card printing can be achieved, and rapid changes of content and patterns become very easy.

Adaptability - using digital printing can not only print text, line drawings and photo images, but also create magnetic strips and provide the location of smart card chips, all of which can be accomplished in a simple process.

Security A plastic card printer can also provide various protection means, such as plating holographic film, which can prevent card information from being tampered with or changed, making the card more secure and less susceptible to copying and counterfeiting.

Durability A card's protective measures such as light, film and the use of safe media can make the card wear-resistant, UV-resistant, water-repellent, and chemical-resistant in different degrees, improving the durability of the card.

Economical digital card printing is much cheaper and less time consuming than traditional print/cut/paste/glue methods, requiring only an image input device such as a digital camera or scanner, a text entry and editing Equipment and output equipment can be completed, and the initial investment is small.

Third, the application of thermal transfer in the card printing

Thermal transfer includes dye sublimation and thermal fusion: both techniques heat the thermally conductive print head when it contacts the ribbon. The difference between hot-melting and dye sublimation is that the hot melt uses ink and the dye sublimates to use the dye. During hot melting, heating causes the ink on the ribbon to melt and transfer to the surface of the card: during dye sublimation, heating causes the dye on the ribbon to evaporate, the solid turns into a gas, spreads to the surface of the card, and the card surface has special substances that can be absorbed. These colored dyes.

Color thermal transfer printed ribbons are divided into three separate color groups: yellow, magenta, and cyan. This structure is called YMC. These three colors are used as primary colors in printing to produce all colors including black. The dye or ink is transferred to the surface of the card through a plurality of sets of systems, which means that each time the card passes under the print head, it will print one of the three color ribbon sets.

The ribbon used in actual card color printing is called the YMCK ribbon and the letter K is used to describe black in the printing industry. Why do we need an independent black group when we can mix black with the three primary colors YMC? The answer is simple. The black produced by mixing YMC is called "synthetic black". Compared with resin black, it is a synthetic black turbid gray. Synthetic black is also not recommended for printing barcodes because it does not produce the smooth edges required by most scanners. Although this is not visible under the naked eye, it is easily visible after magnification. Synthetic black is also not visible in infrared scanners because of the absence of carbon in the dye. Resin black is often used to print bar codes because the type of scanner used cannot be determined.

IV. Application of Laser Inkjet Printing in Card Printing

Laser inkjet printing is the same as the previous stage of thermal transfer, except that the output part is a color inkjet printer. The PVC film base used for ink jet is a layer of polymer coating layer coated on a common PVC white card so that the ink can be quickly printed on the ink and spread without forming a colorful pattern. Due to the application of a layer of polymer coating on the inkjet card material, in order to improve the film fastness, the film must be coated with adhesive film. If the card is full-to-edge printing, that is, a large area of ​​the background color is printed on the card edge, because there is a layer of laser powder material between the white card and the film, such as the ordinary film and the white card film on the card edge Also easy to crack, it must also use adhesive film to enhance adhesion.

DoD (dro-on-Demand) requires ink-jet technology to be used for ink-jet printing of cards in its “touch-and-dry” form, using hot-melt solid ink (liquid at room temperature at high temperatures). The technology is realized. After heating, the solid ink becomes a liquid and is ejected from the nozzle by the piezoelectric effect and instantly solidifies into a droplet on the printing surface. This solidification phenomenon is called “touch and dry” and can be completed within a few seconds. The DoD ink jet method only sprays ink droplets on the surface of the material when needed. This limiting function means that the ink does not have to be used in a reflow system. The print head can contain multiple nozzles, improving efficiency.