Digital Card Printing
DTC Technology
Digital Card Printing is the new technology way of creating identification cards. In this process a film of YMCO (yellow, magenta, cyan and overcoat) is used to diffuse the dye on a plastic card. The film is heated to transfer the dye onto the plastic card. This process of sublimation transitions the dye from solid to gas without ever creating a liquid form. Printing is carried out with multiple passes trough the print head in the order of Yellow, Magenta, Cyan and Black. Cards are then protected from fading by the application of the overlay or vanish
Re-Transfer Card Printing
While direct-to-card (DTC) printing will continue to be the technology of choice for many standard card-printing applications, fast retransfer printing promises to expand a much broader range of possible applications, from high-security ID cards, to retail loyalty cards, to financial cards and beyond. In fact, retransfer technology offers a quantum leap beyond DTC printing
Unlike traditional dye sublimation card printers, which use a printhead to transfer the image through a dye ribbon directly onto the card surface, retransfer printers use a two-step process:
1. In the first step, the retransfer process prints a high-resolution image in reverse directly onto a clear receiving layer carried by a flexible, intermediate film. The dye sublimation process prints the image to the film, just like DTC printing.
2. Next, the printer uses heat and pressure to thermally transfer the image and the entire image-receiving intermediate film onto the card surface. During this process, the layer thermally bonds to the card surface, and the printed image resides underneath the clear image-receiving layer, inside the card.
In traditional DTC printers, the printheads must contact the rigid card substrates, creating excessive wear. When printing to the card edge, DTC printheads often suffer premature failure, or outright damage. Because retransfer printers print on soft transfer film panels, printhead life span improves dramatically. The result is a reduction in overhead for spare printheads, lowered maintenance workload, and significantly improved return on investment (ROI
