Pre-printed cards are a great way to reduce running costs for applications like membership cards and achieving consistent high quality logos and design elements. They can also help speed of card issuance when compared to printing cards in full colour in house.
While sourcing pre-printed cards may sound simple enough we get calls from customers every week who are dissatisfied with their suppliers. There are many organisations large and small that source from overseas, purely on price without having people on the ground checking quality throughout the production process.
What could go wrong ?
- Un-laminated or surface printed (i.e. "unprintable") Cards
- Magnetic Stripes Peeling Off
- Delivery times of 8-10 weeks
- De-lamination of card over-laminate from card body
- Metal Filings in Cards causing $1000+ damage to card printers
- Cards that can only be printed using ABS ribbons (Poor quality print, limited printers support it, higher cost)
There have been many entrants into the pre-printed plastic card printing market of late with little or no experience with card personalisation and a careless attitude because there product is so cheap. Terms like "surface printed", lithographic print, laminated paper are danger signs to watch out for in addition to anyone that can turn pre-printed cards around in 2-3 weeks as a standard process or if the price is significantly less than reputable and experienced suppliers indicates that the cards they supply may not be offset printed laminated PVC core with PVC clear overlaminate.
These cards do have a place for some applications, but you need to be aware of their, durability, appearance and printability. We have had cases of late where a supplier have said their cards can be personalised with a card printer only to find out that it needs to be a specific brand/model with a special non standard more expensive black ABS ribbon with printing results that are less than satisfactory.
Don't get caught trying to save a few cents only to end up missing deadlines, or having to recall and replace cards issued in to the market. Our prices are competitive and our service is excellent, give us a try for your next order of pre-printed cards.
PPC also offer a few personal touches to help you through the card design and approval process and can provide, short run indicative samples in a few days produced on our high quality desktop card printing systems to provide concept proof of the final product. Actual "Proof Cards" from the factory presses are also available with minimal delay for accurate approval using the same printing technique as the final products. Ideal for confirmation prior to major print runs.
PPC's partnership with global leaders in manufacturing pre-printed cards to ensure you receive the cards you are after first time. With a focus on standards our partner factories are VISA certified for security and have significant capacity to ensure reliable turn around.
Producing smart cards to meet ISO standards across a broad range of chips models and capacities, PPC can provide customised pre-printed cards designed for further personalisation by standard desktop card printers. Specialising in major card brands, like HID Prox, HID iClass, Mifare and Siemens which cover over 80% of the market (Excluding Banking and Mobile SIM Cards).
Our partners factories are quality controlled and the state of art Smartcard plant has been audited and accredited by Philips and Arsenal Research for certification of Mifare products according to ISO/IEC 14443. The Smartcard production plant is ISO 9001 accredited and has a track record of producing work for Ministry of Defence, Transport and National Security departments for governments around the world.
The Smartcard plant on its own has over 140 skilled operators on a two shift system enabling the manufacture of 6 million Contact and 3 million Mifare cards each month. Major plans are currently in place to increase the capacity to over 12 million cards per month by 2010.
An example of brands and models readily available at competitive prices
