Plastic Card Printers
Plastic Card Printers
Plastic Card Printers have dropped in price dramatically and have become very easy to install and use. They have a variety of applications, including:
- On site ID Card Production
- Personalisation of membership cards
- Numbering / Encoding of loyalty cards
To choose the right printer for you, please choose a printer from the icons below:
 Monochrome PrintersIssue Loyalty Cards on Site Numbering Cards Visitor Pass Issuance |
 Colour Printers On-Site ID Printing Club / Society Cards College ID Cards |
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 Dual Sided Colour PrintersLarge Colleges Access Control Pass Issuance |
 High Definition Printers High Security Printing Micro printing Colour Correct ID Cards |
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 Laminating Card Printers High Security Applications Durable Card Production |
 Card Laminators Govt Organisations Heavy Duty Cards |
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 Card Embossers and TippersLoyalty Card Issuers Card Bureaux |
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Plastic Card Printers have dropped in price dramatically and have become very easy to install and use. They have a variety of applications, including:
* On site ID Card Production
* Personalisation of membership cards
* Numbering / Encoding of loyalty cards
To choose the right printer for you, please choose a printer from the icons below:
Identity supply a wide range of plastic card printers to suit many applications. If you are unsure of what kind of printer you want, please click here for a list of printers and suitability.
We have found that the main uses for plastic card printers are:
In-house printing of photo ID cards
For mid-range volumes of cards (500-2500 a year) most customers use a plastic card printer to print the entire image of the card onto a blank white card. For larger volumes, we recommend that the static elements of the card, i.e. that which doesn’t change from card to card, should be preprinted. This saves time as the reverse does not have to be printed, and also allows for sharper colour reproduction.
Personalisation of loyalty / membership cards
Many organizations with large memberships buy pre-printed plastic cards with the template design printed on them. Then, using a small desktop printer, the variable data such as card holder names, expiry date etc are printed onto the card as an when they are needed.
Personalisation of security passes
Printers can be factory fitted with magnetic stripe encoders, or proximity card encoders. The printer can then personalize access control cards for staff when needed.
The printers shown here range from small, desktop type printers, to larger laminating printers.
Cim Brand Plastic Card Printers
CIM are an Italian company, and the CIM K3 is a new printer that has many features, including a flip over unit that allows the printer to print both sides of a card in one pass.
The CIM K3 replaces all previous CIM printers, including the K10, K300C and K400C, which have all been discontinued.
The K3 is the lowest cost printer we supply. It can print full colour cards, as well as monochrome cards.
Options include a double sided flipper unit, Ethernet connection upgrade, MIFARE encoding unit and magnetic stripe encoder module.
We recommend the CIM K3 and Zebra P330i for the personalization of loyalty cards.
P-CIM-K3 CIM SUNLIGHT K3
Suitable for low volume ID Card production, loyalty card personalization.
Datacard Plastic Card Printers
Datacard are a respected, established manufacture of card printers based in the USA. We supply three printers in the Datacard range, the SP35 and the SP55.
The SP35 is a low to medium volume printer ideal for ID card printing and loyalty card issuance.
The SP55 is a medium volume printer and comes with a duplex option, for printing both sides of the card in one pass. Options include Ethernet connection upgrade, MIFARE encoding unit and magnetic stripe encoder module.
The SP75 is a higher volume printer again.
P-DC-SP55 DATACARD SP55 SINGLE SIDED
P-DC-SP55-DUP DATACARD SP55 DUPLEX
Magicard Plastic Card Printers
Magicard are a UK based subsidiary of Ultra Electronics, a large conglomerate. They manufacture printers in the UK. We supply four printers from their range, from the entry level Tempo to the High Definition Prima 2e.
We recommend these printers for ID card issuance. The Tempo is suitable for low volume loyalty card personalization, but we recommend the CIM K3 and Zebra P330i for this purpose.
Zebra (formerly Eltron) Plastic Card Printers
Zebra printers are manufactured in the USA, by Zebra Card, who also make label printers and barcode printers. We stock the full range of zebra printers, from the entry-level P110i to the high-end laminating 640i printer. Identity Plastic Print use Zebra printers in our bureau operations and we recommend them highly, they are very easy to use and reliable.
Fargo Plastic Card Printers
Fargo are another USA based manufacturer. The only printers we sell from the Fargo range are the HDP printers, which are of a different class to all other thermal printers. HDP printers offer very high print resolution, and can also print on CR-90 and CR-100 oversize cards for concert laminates etc.
Features of plastic card printers
Monochrome Printing
Print in one colour. At present, most printers can only use rubbons of the following colours : red, green, blue, white, black, silver and gold. Zebra printers can use generic ribbons which can be many different colours, and are frequently less than one third of the price.
Full colour printing
Full colour printing uses a three colour ribbon combination; Cyan, Yellow and Magenta to create a colour image from a palette of 16.7m colours. Black and overlay varnish panels are used to in YMCKO ribbon combinations to reproduce solid black, which is sealed onto the card with an overlay varnish.
Duplex Printing
Duplex printing means that both sides of the card can be printed in the same pass. A small flipper module takes the card and flips it lengthways by 180 degrees, then prints the reverse of the card.
Laminator Module
For heavy-duty use plastic cards, cards can be laminated with a 0.1mm thick tough lamination. Printers like the P630i and P640i have this feature. The Laminex Lx4 laminating module is included inside the printer, and lamination takes place as an inline print process.
Magnetic stripe encoding
Magnetic stripes can be encoded on tracks 1,2 and 3 by buying a printer with a pre-installed lamination unit. Card stripes can be personalized according to cardholder data that varies with every user.
Smart chip encoding
Intergrated smart cards can be encoded by buying a printer with a pre-installed contact chip encoding station. Chips can be encoded as part of the print process with variable or static data.
Mifare Encoding
Most plastic card printers we sell can be factory fitted with MIFARE module encoding.
Prox Encoding
Most plastic card printers we sell can be factory fitted with HID Iso Prox and other Prox card module encoding modules.
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