PVC Card Use Cases
PVC cards, which stand for Polyvinyl Chloride, are the standard card stock used with ID printers. They’re great for those who want a durable, long-lasting card that’s suitable for any use case.
Composite cards, which are a combination of PVC and PET materials, offer more durability and resist heat well. They can withstand high-heat settings during lamination and printing with retransfer printers.
Identification Cards
When it comes to ID cards, you want to put your confidence in a strong plastic card that will hold up over time. That’s why you should consider PVC cards for your next business or personal application.
There are two major factors that impact your card’s durability: card thickness and lamination. A PVC card with a thicker core will last longer than one that is less thick. Additionally, a laminated PVC card will protect your images and bar codes from damage and daily wear and tear.
PVC is an excellent option for use with direct-to-card printers, as it offers a smooth finish that ensures colors and branding are printed clearly. It also stands up to the heat used in the lamination and retransfer printing processes.
Composite ID cards, on the other hand, may not withstand the heat of these printers as well. They are typically made with a PET core flanked by PVC sides (60% PVC and 40% polyester). This construction makes them more durable than standard PVC cards, which can warp or bend if not laminated correctly, and better able to withstand the high heat of retransfer printing.
These CR-80 30 mil blank white PVC cards can be easily personalized using readily available desktop ID card printers and monochrome printer ribbons. These cards are a great choice for general-purpose ID cards and feature a high-quality graphic image and standard swipe reader strip. They are packaged in 100-card quantities and quality inspected before being shrink wrapped for added protection.
Membership Cards
Membership cards are a great way to provide your members with visual identification while strengthening their ties with your club or association. These cards can contain a range of data such as the first names and surnames of the members, photos, and the card’s validity date. They can also be encoded using an Evolis printer with a contact PVC Card or contactless chip, or printed with barcodes to include access management, prepayment, or promotional offers from your partnering stores.
Unlike traditional paper ID cards, PVC-based membership cards are durable and can be easily printed with graphics, user photos, a barcode and more to keep track of your memberships. They can even be enhanced with holograms and Guilloche patterns to make them tamper-proof and more resistant to forgery.
Mixto provides customized PVC and PET card printing for a variety of organizations and industries. We offer a range of options to suit your requirements, including different sizes and colors to match the look of your brand, and lamination to prevent the cards from getting damaged by the elements. For more information about our printing processes, please get in touch with our team of experts today. You can also download our free templates to start designing your membership cards for your organization. We offer a fast, reliable and affordable service for any size project.
Access Cards
When used for employee identification, access cards help you maintain security and control who gets to enter specific areas within your facility. They also make it easy for authorized personnel to verify the identity of a visitor or guest.
Using a PVC ID card printing machine, you can add visual and physical security functions to make it difficult for counterfeiters or other bad actors to replicate your organization’s credentials. These can include holographic imprints and watermarks that make it impossible to copy the appearance of your PVC ID cards.
PVC ID cards are a great choice for proximity access control, especially when used with an embedded 125kHz chip. This chip contains the cardholder’s name, a unique serial number, and other important information that helps you quickly identify them when they’re trying to gain access to your facilities.
One drawback of standard PVC cards is that they don’t hold up well to heat. If a PVC ID card is regularly swiped with a magnetic stripe reader, repeated exposure to extreme cold or heat can cause the plastic to warp. Composite PVC-PET cards, on the other hand, are much more durable. They can withstand the higher temperatures used for laminating or for printing with retransfer printers.
Another benefit of PVC-PET cards is that they’re made from recycled materials. This reduces the amount of petroleum-based plastic that is discarded into the environment. It also uses less energy and produces fewer toxic chemicals when incinerated than conventional PVC.
Credit Cards
If you use a credit card, chances are it’s made of PVC. This is a petroleum-based plastic and it does not biodegrade. It accumulates in the environment and creates toxic pollution when it is incinerated.
The banking industry is experimenting with new technologies and alternative materials to PVC, including bio-sourced eco-friendly cards that are made of polylactic acid (PLA) that’s extracted from non-food corn. The goal is to reduce the need for natural resources to produce and package debit and credit cards.
PVC cards have a number of security features that make them difficult to counterfeit, including holographic visual identification technology. This makes it difficult for someone to take a picture of your card, print a fake one and use it at your workplace or event.
Membership cards and event passes are another popular use of PVC cards that contain scannable barcodes or swipeable magnetic stripe encoding. These cards are often used desfire ev3 by gyms, book stores and other clubs to track member activity and attendance.
Blank composite PVC-PET ID cards are 30 ml thick and have an encodable magnetic stripe on them. These cards are used with retransfer printers because they can withstand the extreme heat generated during the printing process that can cause standard image grade cards to warp. These cards are also ideal for card printers that require an overlaminate or holograph overlay.