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ReTransfer PVC Card Printing
The Trials and
Tribulations of Marketing a Superior Technology
Overview by James Childers - CEO of Smart Card Supply.
ReTransfer Printing is
an amazing technology that allows you to print FULL COLOR,
FULL BLEED IMAGES in perfect color without the pitfalls of
traditional dye sublimation card printing. We at Smart
Card Supply have been supplying ReTransfer printing
technology to our customers now for almost two years through
the IDX380 from IWS.
Traditional "dye sub" card printing requires that the print
head of the card printer print directly onto the card
material through the printer
ribbon. This process is efficient, inexpensive and
allows the card printer to move the material directly under
the print head for printing.
This method of printing always
leaves a very thin white border around the
card as the print head
cannot adequately print completely out to the edge of the
card without risking serious damage to the print head.
Depending upon the printer this can leave a "border" of up
to 1/32nd of an inch around the edge of the card.
ReTransfer printers have two
consumable components:
The
first is the
Printer Ribbon:
This ribbon comes in YMCK (Yellow, Magenta, Cyan and Black
Resin) format and is used to print all of the images on your
card by mixing these colors in a Dye Sublimation process.
The Second component is the
Transfer Film.
Rather than printing directly on the card itself, the
ReTransfer printer prints a reverse image on the laminate
transfer film and then bonds this material to the face of
the card. Since the ReTransfer Film is slightly
larger than the size of a standard CR-80 card it is possible
to print over the entire surface area of the PVC card
without the pesky white border that is required on all other
dye sublimation printers.
Additional advantages of the ReTransfer process:
Durability
of Card is substantially improved by bonding the
substrate film with the card material. The ReTransfer
process encapsulates the printed image within a bond of
extremely durable material and increases the card life
substantially. Additional security overlays may be
adhered on top of the bonding film to increase durability
and improve security.
Custom secure holographic overlays are available for use
with the ReTransfer printers sold by Smart Card Supply.
Cost savings are seen in
the reduced wear and tear on the print heads. Since
the printer is printing on a substrate material (film) that
is very thin and strong there is less wear on the print head
because there is very little variation in size or texture on
the surface area of the film. Since the film is a
standard thickness the print head does not have to move to
accommodate thickness variations in the cards.
Consistency of Printing
is a result of the process that prints directly on the
transfer film. Each print is extremely high quality and
there is little variation in the print quality because of
the way that the film and ribbons are loaded into the
printing chamber. Once the film has the reverse image
embedded, it is then laminated to the PVC material. In
a traditional printer there are several variables that
affect the print quality including card size variations,
edge smoothness, foreign material on the card surface,
ribbon tightness and as the ribbon is used there is a
tendency of the ribbons to stretch or move slightly out of
alignment. This is not the case with ReTransfer
printing as this process is very tightly controlled.
The
history of commercial grade ReTransfer printing is somewhat
interesting and colorful, and I believe it is important for
all of our customers to understand how this technology is,
was and almost nearly wasn't available for their use.
At this point I must
insert a disclaimer here that the comments made
herein are those of myself and represent my opinions
ONLY and not those of the various manufacturers listed.
The Manufacturers and their trademarks listed below are
not affiliated in any way nor do they approve of this
message from Smart Card Supply.
ImageWare
Systems (IWS) was one of the very first to see the potential
of this new technology in the commercial workspace and
brought it to market here and throughout the world in the
form of their EdiGuard IDX
380 printer. The IDX 380 was a huge success with
our customers here at Smart Card Supply and we sold
substantial quantities to gift and loyalty card issuers,
State, Local and Federal Governments and business customers
with rave reviews.
IWS had a serious problem though...They are also the
manufacturer of the
EpiSuite
line of card printing software products. These
products are among the best in their class and are sold
and/or supported by many card printer manufacturers
including Eltron and Fargo. Fargo has a professional
series known as the HDP series of printers. The HDP
series of printers uses the ReTransfer technology and is
aimed squarely at government and large card issuing
companies. The HDP series of printers from Fargo can
only be sold and/or serviced by very highly trained and
territory controlled "authorized" HDP Dealers.
While the manufacturers claim this "limited distribution
strategy" improves customer support and ensures "properly
trained and authorized" personnel are engaging the customer,
it clearly and substantially reduces competition, narrows
the channels of distribution and artificially inflates end
user prices and manufacturer/dealer profits above those seen
in traditional Keynesian "free market" economic models.
The HDP series is very robust and substantially more
expensive than the IDX 380 that was available from IWS.
Worse yet, the IDX 380 was available through a standard
distribution model and was even ***GASP*** being sold DIRECT
TO THE CONSUMER on the Internet (You can thank us for that)
instead of through the "limited distribution model".
Since
IWS was a software partner of Fargo, IWS's entry into a
competing hardware business that struck at the core of their
most profitable market was not received with open arms.
IWS was forced to make a decision - Lose Fargo's business on
the software side (which was the core of their business) or
continue to market the IDX 380 and directly compete with the
HDP series of printers from Fargo.
At
the beginning of last year (2003), IWS removed the
IDX 380 from the US
market and completely removed any reference that it ever
existed from their website. We continued to support
our customers by purchasing printers, materials, consumables
and replacement parts from overseas suppliers in Germany,
Singapore and Malaysia. We must emphasize here that
the EXACT SAME PRODUCT that was not being sold in the US was
very readily available from IWS's international divisions
and was fully available throughout Europe and the Far East.
This product was only removed from distribution in the North
American market.
After withdrawing their product from the US Market, we
noticed that some other manufacturers were marketing
products that were very similar to or even exact copies of
the IDX 380. This is known in the industry as OEM
(Original Equipment Manufacture) product and is where a
company re-brands the product with their logo. The
UltraMagiCard Prima pictured to the right here is an example
of this OEM product. Do they look similar? They
are exact replicas of each other.
Still there was not a single manufacturer making a strong
commitment to bring the ReTransfer technology from the
"Limited Distribution" Professional level to the Commercial
Level... Until NOW. We finally found a manufacturer
that will not only support us with new sales - yes even
those nasty "low margin" direct to consumer Internet sales,
but will also support our existing installed base of IDX380
printers with service, parts, training and end user customer
support. Meet our new premiere partner - DIS - Digital
Identification Solutions.
Smart
Card Supply is an authorized reseller for Digital
Identifications line of EDI Secure
XID Re-Transfer printer Family.
This is a re-incarnation and an improvement upon our
existing IDX380 offering. Please review the entire
line of XID ReTransfer Printers.
Please contact me directly if you have any questions about
this technology or if you have an IDX380 printer in need of
support.
Sincerely,
James Childers -
sales@smartcardsupply.com |