I.D. card printing machines

[Novalee]

So we are considering getting one. Finally. (I've been after one for years!)

 

I have had a Databac SP25 plus with IAT magnetic stripe recommended. Looks good and I've had a quote from the company.

They wanted £400 for the software but I've been told you can get it a LOT cheaper. So now just want to check my options of other companies etc. before we commit.

 

Would like a printer which does two sided, full colour and a magnetic strip printer for use with follow me printing (when we get that - just want it to be future proofed).

 

Any recommendations?

[jamesreedersmith]

A lot of follow me printers are RFID rather than magstripe (in fact a lot of door entry systems/time logging etc are all RFID too) so the mag stripe may not be needed and may make it cheaper.

[Edu-IT]

I'd be interested to hear what people are using too. We currently send our cards outside to be printed, but I wonder if it would be cheaper to bring it in house.

 

Edit: I'd be interested to hear if anyone prints their own MiFare cards, and what cost it works out at per card

Edited January 15, 2015 by Edu-IT

[localzuk]

I'd recommend the Evolis Primacy. We run a single sided one at the moment, but they do a double sided model, and have various options such as Magstripe,Smartcard,RFID and combined smart/rfid encoder modules. We got ours from Smart Card Store. They're a good company - very helpful and quick service.

 

They do various pieces of software for it too (we don't use any though, as I wrote my own to tie in with our in-house cashless system).

 

SmartCard - Your ID Specialist - Evolis Primacy Double Sided Card Printer PM1H0000RD

[Edu-IT]

I'd recommend the Evolis Primacy. We run a single sided one at the moment, but they do a double sided model, and have various options such as Magstripe,Smartcard,RFID and combined smart/rfid encoder modules. We got ours from Smart Card Store. They're a good company - very helpful and quick service.

 

They do various pieces of software for it too (we don't use any though, as I wrote my own to tie in with our in-house cashless system).

 

SmartCard - Your ID Specialist - Evolis Primacy Double Sided Card Printer PM1H0000RD

What is the ink refill for that? I can't find it on their site.

 

Edit: Ignore! Being stupid.

 

So £42 for 400 images. I assume then that it would do 200 double sided cards. MiFare cards are around £45 for 100. So approximately 55p to print a card. We currently pay 40p a card. So it appears as though sometimes it's cheaper to outsource?

Edited January 15, 2015 by Edu-IT

[plexer]

If you want to do full colour print on both sides with the linked to printer the ribbon is £40.00 for 200 images i.e 100 cards so it's even more.

 

40p + card cost.

 

If you're paying 40p per card outsourced that's very very good so I'd be surprised at that.

 

Ben

[mikecain]

we use a zebra zxp series 3 printer, works everytime with no problems

[pete]

We outsourced to Castlemount ( The Complete Service for ID Card Printing, ID Card Design, ID Badges )

 

Full colour, two sided, magstripe on 1mm plastic.

[TechMonkey]

We got an Evolis, only annoyance is that it tends to go to sleep, I think when it loses communication with the computer, so with ours, which is out the way, you can have sent a batch of cards to it before you realise it isn't even on.

 

Apart from that it is great. We manually register the RFIDs in our security software, we only do one side (couldn't see much of a point to double sided) and we use the free software that came with our security software. We have had engineers coming on site commenting on how good the images look on them so we are a bit chuffed.

[Reverend_Dan]

We have a Magicard Pronto Printer, which I use to print our id cards with, it works never really had any bother with it. Acts like a normal printer meaning I can print directly from our Net2 Id software. I print on cheap blanks as we reuse the net2 door access cards as they cost a fiver then slot the two in together.

 

I also has been used for testing purposes to see if it could print a full colour copy of a nus card and a fake mag strip on the back, which worked well enough for cinema discount

[localzuk]

What is the ink refill for that? I can't find it on their site.

 

Edit: Ignore! Being stupid.

 

So £42 for 400 images. I assume then that it would do 200 double sided cards. MiFare cards are around £45 for 100. So approximately 55p to print a card. We currently pay 40p a card. So it appears as though sometimes it's cheaper to outsource?

 

That £42 ribbon is a half panel (ie. the colours are half sized). For full panel coverage, you'd be spending £40 for 200 images, so for double sided you're paying 40p per card. So, 85p per card. 40p for a double sided card is ridiculously cheap - I don't know how a company can be doing it that cheap!

[Novalee]

A lot of follow me printers are RFID rather than magstripe (in fact a lot of door entry systems/time logging etc are all RFID too) so the mag stripe may not be needed and may make it cheaper.

 

Oh dear - how would I know which is more sensible here then? As not sure which company we'd be going with for a copier solution.

[azc]

We have a couple of Magicard Rio Pro card printers, one with a MiFare module and one without. They both do double-sided printing, although monochrome only on the reverse. They're OK I suppose. Don't really have anything to compare them with.

 

Suggest having a chat with AIT (formerly Altman and ICS) about their card printing solutions.

[Tesla]

We use an MagiCard Enduro machine.... but that's all i know i wasn't involved in choosing it over any others..

[brewerd]

We use a zebra 110i here for printing and mag encoding, it jams occasionally but other than that it works a treat. We also use Imagebase to manage the database. I'd recommend having a chat to the guys at DigitalID as they have always been helpful to us.

[HTCPCP]

WE use a card printer from DigitalID where we pay £70 for 100 miFare cards and a smart single sided colour card printer which we bought through our printing card company.

 

It's not hugely fast, but does the job for staff cards, and using ImageBase pro then you can save time when the inevitable happens, and (mostly teachers) lose their cards!

[TechMonkey]

Oh dear - how would I know which is more sensible here then? As not sure which company we'd be going with for a copier solution.

 

I can't imagine any company still doing mag stripe. More likely is the copier company will have a few different modules that can be slotted in that read different cards, depending on the cards being used. MiFare seems to be pretty universal now so that would be a good choice.

[Novalee]

I can't imagine any company still doing mag stripe. More likely is the copier company will have a few different modules that can be slotted in that read different cards, depending on the cards being used. MiFare seems to be pretty universal now so that would be a good choice.

 

That's reassuring. What exactly is MiFare? How would be get the cards made for that? (Does it even use cards?)

[Edu-IT]

That £42 ribbon is a half panel (ie. the colours are half sized). For full panel coverage, you'd be spending £40 for 200 images, so for double sided you're paying 40p per card. So, 85p per card. 40p for a double sided card is ridiculously cheap - I don't know how a company can be doing it that cheap!

It's definitely 40p a card, just checked the invoice again. That is for a MiFare card full colour double sided with the choice of matt or gloss.

[plexer]

That's reassuring. What exactly is MiFare? How would be get the cards made for that? (Does it even use cards?)

 

Mifare is an embedded rfid tag in a pvc card effectively like Oyster cards.

 

Ben

[truebluesteve]

We have a Magicard Pronto Printer, which I use to print our id cards with, it works never really had any bother with it. Acts like a normal printer meaning I can print directly from our Net2 Id software. I print on cheap blanks as we reuse the net2 door access cards as they cost a fiver then slot the two in together.

 

I also has been used for testing purposes to see if it could print a full colour copy of a nus card and a fake mag strip on the back, which worked well enough for cinema discount

 

Same here, although it's not the Pronto - think it's the Tango/Rio but a good printer and can put a security watermark over the top of the print, although I think that's extra. The only negative point is that the ribbon can be fiddly to change

[Novalee]

Another question. I see many card printers with 'Duplex'. Is this necessary? Unless you're printing thousands, could you just re-feed a printed card to print on the other side on a 'simplex' printer? Just put each one through twice essentially?

[localzuk]

Another question. I see many card printers with 'Duplex'. Is this necessary? Unless you're printing thousands, could you just re-feed a printed card to print on the other side on a 'simplex' printer? Just put each one through twice essentially?

 

You could, I suppose. But the difference in price between simplex and duplex is minimal - so if you know you're going to want to print duplex a lot, then duplex would be a sensible purchase. Its usually about £100-£200 difference in price from what I've seen!

[azc]

could you just re-feed a printed card to print on the other side

 

Yes you absolutely could. However, duplex printers may print the reverse with a single black panel, rather than a full CMYK(+Clear) ribbon. This will probably reduce costs per card.

[synaesthesia]

Magicard Enduro here. Just works, recently done a huge batch of cards, just bombed through them without batting an eye. Good quality prints and very decent software.