3 popular plastic card printing technologies

     Plastic card is the most common card printing products for various business, such as Plastic Membership Card, Plastic Business Card, Plastic VIP Card, Plastic Gift Card, etc. The different card printing technologies, the different plastic card printing effect you get. Therefore, choosing the right plastic card printing technology is so important to impress your customers. There're the following popular printing technologies: Offset Printing (CMYK Printing, Spot-color Printing), Silk-screen Printing, Gold/Silver Foil Stamping.

• Offset Printing

     The offset printing technology uses a specific printing machine to first prepare color ink to form a printing effect through multiple processes such as pressure, roller, and printing. It is characterized by low mass production cost and good printing effect.
     The offset printing technology is one of the most widely used by plastic cards, such as telephone cards, bank cards, IC cards and so on. It generally uses a special CMYK printer to print on a single layer of plastic card material, and then performs processes, such as lamination, punching, magnetic writing, embossing, etc. The equipment investment is huge and the production process is very complicated, which requires a large printing machine.
     They are suitable for high-volume ID cards with low cost. However, it is impossible to print color portrait cards and print personal information such as different photos and names on the cards. So the scope of use is limited. Generally, it is printed on a four-color printing machine and uses UV offset printing ink. The finished product is colorful, with good definition and high quality, and is suitable for mass printing.
 

• Silk-screen Printing

     The silk-screen printing is the most common printing method of plastic card, which is mainly to penetrate the ink onto the substrate through the screen and then use external pressure to form a printing effect. It’s a traditional process and its operation is complicated. However, Its equipment investment is less and the application range is the widest. Silk-screen printing plastic cards are commonly used to produce gold or silver cards. They are only suitable for printing certain cards with simple text and graphics and signature panel on the back of plastic cards. High-quality color patterns cannot be printed.
 

• Gold/Silver Foil Stamping

     Hot stamping cards is a plastic card with real metallic effect, which use a special hot stamping machine to hot stamp the text and graphics on the surface of the plastic card. It is generally used to make VIP cards, membership cards, gift cards and so on.

     As a plastic card manufacturing expert, no matter what printing effect you want, SmartOne have the ability of special printing technology to print custom plastic cards to meet your requirements. If you have any questions about plastic cards printing, feel free to contact us, [email protected] we will respond within 24 hours or less!