Plastic card printing technology explained.
A plastic card printer lets you customize plastic ID cards and badges for multiple uses: employee badges, loyalty cards, student cards, payment cards, among others. The smooth surface and material of these plastic cards – generally in "credit card" format (5.4 x 8.6 cm) – require printing technologies different from those used in conventional paper printers (laser or inkjet). These systems use special processes to durably apply the ink needed for printing on plastic cards, thanks in large part to a ribbon. The ribbon is the equivalent of the ink cartridge in office paper printers. The two printing processes used for plastic cards are: Direct-to-card printing This technology, also known as D2T2 (Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer), combines monochrome thermal transfer processes and dye sublimation: · Dye sublimation When using a ribbon consisting of color panels (yellow, magenta, cyan, and black), printing is carried out in several stages, with the