CornCard USA ready for market

"It sounds corny to some, but the latest card en route to consumers’ wallets promises the same durability of traditional petroleum-based (PVC) cards without using up one of Earth’s most valuable and dwindling resources … oil." - Marisa Torrieri, SecureIDNews

Several large card manufacturers in the market have big plans for the rollout of a "new" alternative to PVC blanks. CornCard USA is the brand name for Arthur Blank Co's (ABCO) new corn-based card product. The product contains no PVC, and does not release toxins when burned or recycled.

Laminex currently offers several environmentally friendly alternatives to standard plain PVC card stock. Two alternatives that perform very well are the Bio-PVC (biodegradable plastic material) and the 100% recycled PVC card. Corn-based cards are perfect for pre-printed gift cards or for customers who only need to surface print with monochrome resins. Early versions of the corn-based cards preformed poorly on YMC dye sublimation printers, but later versions of the card are proving to be better ink substrates. That said, retransfer technology printers like the Zebra ZXP-8 are making that early finding into a nonissue. For more information on our card materials and printer products, please visit the Laminex website.

Corn-based cards are showing up every day in the gift card market. Although every customer is not asking for a suitable alternative to PVC, when a large "top 50" company finally does, the market will take notice. If environmental responsibility doesn't turn the tide, then oil prices may eventually drive a change. Currently, corn based card products cost roughly 10% more than PVC based offerings. If that gap shrinks to 2-5% we may have a real race on our hands.

Coolest ID Card Video Ever!

We say: This new Samsung technology is amazing. We wonder if it will be accepted by users and how it interacts with access control technology.

New technology continues to push the boundaries of holography

It’s certain that there are some exciting new developments out there to reaffirm holography’s position as an effective, added value solution for putting eye-catching, hard to copy images onto brands without relying on the application of a label–providing an extremely cost effective anti-counterfeiting solution in the process. (More here)

We say: Yes, holograms on ID cards are great eye candy and super secure. There are also great low cost card security solutions that work well when card security is required, but not at a premium expense.

Photo ID Cards

Despite not working at the prison since May last year, Ms Stanmore still has her ID badge and keys to confidential filing cabinets containing prisoner information.

“I think it is disgusting,” she said. “All they said to me when I contacted them about it was that I should post it to them but I do not think that is correct.” (entire article)

We say: Allowing former employees to leave with their corporate photo ID and keys is a breach of physical security. Trained security staff should be mindful that access control is only as good as enforcement and implementation of a solid plan.

PromoPostcard

Our new PromoPostcard combines a postcard and laminated credit card size loyalty or discount card.  It is a nice efficient way to get a memorable card in your customer's hands.   Personalization and short runs are not a problem.  Our services include providing the card only or we can receive your database and handle complete mailing.  It's a great consideration for a number of marketing programs.

We say:  Whatever you do, now is not the time to pull back on advertising and marketing your company.

Half Card Holder

As the year winds down we are hard at work on catalog updates with easy-to-use pricing. There are several new accessories that we developed this year that will be part of our 2009 offerings. We'll be showing a few of them to you in the next several weeks.

One new product is a hard plastic vertical or horizontal half card holder. Both models securely hold a 30 mil credit card size ID. The clear plastic allows for viewing card, but the smooth front also allows for a custom imprint. The horizontal model is designed to allow the user to swipe the card through most magnetic stripe or barcode readers without removing the card from the holder.

As usual, samples are FREE.

RNC delegate gets ID stolen by protest group

Fort Wayne realtor Annie Eckrich says her stolen identification was used by operatives to illegally gain entry onto the convention floor. (here's the story)

We say: ID Card Security Features are inexpensive compared to the cost of compromised security!

ID Cards Keep Kids Safer - for Free

• 
  
  Kids need photo ID in the case that they are missing and a recent photo is not available. I would guess grandparents would be the first source of such pictures (insatiable photo-consumers in my experience) but what about the personal data? I think this is a great service and I'd like to see more community organizations and Police Departments taking part in programs like this around the country.
• As a parent, would you want / allow a fingerprint and photo to be stored on police record for the child?
• Would you take advantage of this service?
  
• If so, would you be willing to pay for it?

Thanks to the local police in Syracuse, you don't have to. Syracuse Police are issuing photo ID cards to all children in the area as part of their "SafeKids" program. This program allows parents to get two printed copies of a photo ID card with their child's picture and data, at no charge.

Way to go SPD! Keep up the good work.

Retransfer is the new black

Although they do exactly what they are sold to do, my personal preference for beautifully printed photo ID cards is often left wanting when I see output from most "direct to card" printers. I am talking specifically about the "value" lines of printer from the big three manufacturers (Fargo, Zebra, Datacard) that we most often see in customers' security systems. Their price and speed are both very good in terms of value, but the color output is just not up to par for some designers/prepress artists. I remember a looooong conversation with with the staff card office of the University of North Carolina regarding the color blue. The Tarheels know their blue, and it absolutely has to be their blue, or nothing. After printing sample chips of colors on maybe 25-30 cards, we finally arrived at a suitable RGB color for their design. It was exhausting and expensive.

The whole time I was going back and forth with them I was thinking how nice it would be for a desktop card printer to represent the screen images correctly in the finished card. That was 10 years ago. Now, the product I was wishing for is in wide distribution and is coming down in price to a level that almost any user can afford.

Retransfer printers are a different breed than direct-to-card units in that they print on a piece of film (in reverse) and then that film is bonded to the surface of the card. This allows for images to be printed "off the edge" in full bleed. The colors that these retransfer units can achieve is remarkable in comparison to the direct units. Another advantage of the retransfer process is the fact that the card surface (the substrate) does not have to be totally smooth to render a clean image. Bumpy cards like Prox or Mifare are a problem for direct-to-card systems, but retransfer printers have no apparent problem. In terms of image quality, retransfer printers eat the direct-to-card printers for lunch.

The two downsides of using retransfer are cost and speed of production. These units are usually higher priced to the end user, and I think this is largely because the market share is just too small to justify lower prices to drive unit sales. It's a niche inside an already niche market. Fargo (Now known as HID Identity) has taken a pretty bold step in releasing their new lower priced retransfer unit at $3,995 MSRP, where their earlier models were upwards of $6K for a comparable feature set. Fargo's competitors (EdiSecure, Datacard Hi-FX, VDS) may need to follow suit soon.

The speed issue is easily seen when any retransfer printer is run side-by-side against a direct to card unit. The speed drop is largely because of the extra pass associated with retransfer process. Let's say a standard Direct to Card (DTC) printer uses a YMCK ribbon to print a full color 1-sided card. Each time the card passes over the printhead, the ribbon panel puts down one color, or "sublimates" that particular dye panel. A retransfer printer using a YMCK ribbon in conjunction with a retransfer ribbon will have to make the same amount of passes to print the same card, but there is an additional time lag for the transfer of the image to the card. This drags the output time out, and causes the retransfer printer to run about 20% slower than the DTC printer.

This has been combatted by printing in portrait mode (longer side of the card is the leading edge) on some retransfer printers. DIS's EdiSecure printer is a prime example of this. Instead of feeding paper (or cards, in this case) into the unit with the short side leading, they feed with the longer side leading. This cuts down the linear length of the print process, which leads to faster output. Brilliant. It's a patented process that only the VDS style of printer can use, and EdiSecure is one of the VDS printer types. It is the best incarnation of the VDS printer style in my opinion.

I would like to know when the other manufacturers are going to step up and drive a true competitive change in the retransfer printer market. Fargo is currently leading the apparent charge with their HDP5000 unit, and its modular design is pretty darn nice for the price. Zebra, I'm looking in your direction... where's that retransfer printer?

Travis Brewington can be reached via email or via (800) 438-8850, Ext. 111