Laminated PVC Cards
A high quality PVC card product constructed in a sandwich format. Consists of one or two PVC sheets overlain with one or two 2 mil clear PVC sheets over top of the core PVC stock. The core stock is printed on the front and / or back. The clear PVC can either be gloss or matte. The resulting sandwich of materials is placed in a “laminator” that applies heat and pressure to bond the materials into one piece. With some ink formulations and coverage, a glue is used to help the 2 mil lamination stick to the printed surface. Laminated cards are usually 24 or 30mil and best typified by the ATM, debit, or credit card in your wallet. Durability is very high, as much as five years with typical usage. This product is somewhat higher priced than UV coated cards but generally is more attractive and longer lasting. These cards may have a magnetic stripe flush laminated in them to be used in a magnetic stripe reader.

UV Coated Cards
PVC, styrene, and other materials by have a single core sheet printed and coated with an aqueous UV sensitive coating to form a durable laminate over the printed information. UV coating is typically applied to the sheets while traveling through the press is a single pass. The UV dryers on the press makes sure the print and the coating are fixed before the sheets ever leave the press. There are a wide variety of coated card thicknesses from 10mil to 30mil. UV coated cards are typically used for direct mail and advertising applications. Knockouts can be put on the card where the coating will not lay on the plastic. These knocked out areas can be printed on with inkjet printing. Or, UV cards can be embossed and tipped if the correct UV coating was used. The advantage of this product is its low cost compared to laminated cards. They are not as durable nor can they readily accept a magnetic stripe.

Paper Cards
Paper cards come in a variety of materials and with different coatings. Most commonly used is a 24mil C2S paper stock that is fairly rigid and feels somewhat like a plastic card. However, paper can come as a 7mil card integrated (pre-glued on) a letter stock, 10mil paper used for card coupons in retail advertising, etc. Although it costs more, paper cards can be laminated with PVC and embossed. Paper cards are inexpensive and frequently used in all types of advertising. Recycled and FSC materials are available.

Surface Printed Cards
These cards are pre-diecut and fed one-up into small litho presses, generally for short run applications. The lamination is aqueous, not PVC, so the card doesn’t have the same quality look and feel as a fully laminated card. However, they are relatively inexpensive and they can be turned around very quickly. Surface printed starts with a laminated card and after it is printed, a UV coating is placed over the printing to protect.  The areas that need to be thermaled are usually left unprinted so the thermal has the laminate to “bite” into. A laminated card also is a smoother, more stable surface in which to print. The cards can come with a mag stripe pre-adhered to them. The new coatings can be thermal printed.

Digitally Printed Cards
White Plastic blanks can be fed into equipment that uses thermal ribbon transfer, direct dye sublimation, or retransfer of ink from a printed substrate, to print the cards. Typically, because  the cost of the four color ribbon is substantial, these are done in low volumes only. A transfer laminate is added to card for colored printing to protect the image. Individual photo ID cards, bank cards with photo’s, or fully imaged cards with pictures can be easily created using this format. Images must be sized properly before being added to the card.

Teslin Cards
Teslin is a synthetic “paper” manufactured by PPG industries. It has great printing characteristics and works well with virtually any kind of laser printer or conventional offset printing. It is extremely strong and durable and frequently used in loyalty applications where cards are handled a lot. Teslin cards are laminated after they are printed with a thick, durable sheet of clear material that protects the image (beneath the laminate) longer than any other type of card personalization. Teslin cards can be diecut into a wide variety of shapes and sizes. In general, Teslin cards tend to be expensive compared to other card printing solutions.

Integrated/Clean Release Cards
If you are looking for a thin card product that needs to be mailed, the integrated card could be just the thing for you. Paper manufacturers pre-attach thin cards to forms which can be custom printed in advance. They can be loaded into a laser printer and then variably personalized on demand. On a color printer the entire form and the card(s) can be variably printed so you have no upfront cost for custom printed materials.

Card Carriers
Traditional ‘hard cards” are usually attached to a letter or informational form of some sort. These are referred to as “card carriers”. For forms that have variable text laser printed on one side (simplex) we use 60lb. offset. For duplex letters we use 60lb. opaque. For non-personalized carriers almost any paper product may be used. The most popular carrier for gift card hang tags is the 10pt. – 12pt. C1S or C2S. Please call for specific information on self-mailers and their unique specifications.

Envelopes
We can use almost any size or type of envelope. Typically we use a 24lb. white wove single or double window envelope.