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Card Construction
 


Solid Core Cards (No Overlay)
Solid core cards are made from a single film printed on both sides. Manufactured without an overlay, the cards are usually protected with a varnish.  They work well for customer, loyalty, and scratch-off cards, or any card with a short shelf life.

  • The cards require no collating or lamination.
  • Cards are relatively low cost.
  • kp’s high manufacturing standards mean you get superior surfaces on both sides, which is essential for good print quality.

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Solid Core Cards (With Overlay)
Solid core cards, made from a single film printed on both sides, can also be manufactured with an overlay. The overlay protects the surface artwork and increases the card’s shelf life.

  • This construction is suitable for all common card applications. An overlay is required for cards with security features and/or magnetic stripes.  Magnetic stripe application is possible.
  • Handling is relatively simple compared to split core construction. There is a short lamination time independent of core material (no core/core lamination).
  • Klöckner Pentaplast’s high manufacturing standards mean you get superior surfaces on both sides, which is essential for good print quality.
     

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Split Core Cards
Split core cards are the best choice when you want both physical performance and high print quality. This construction method is suitable for any card application.

  • kp quality is an advantage because our stringent process controls provide a wider process window throughout each step in the customer's manufacturing process. The films must have a well-balanced formulation to achieve sufficient bond strength together with minimum card flow.
  • Only one side of the film is printed.
  • Laminated cards have the best physical properties.
  • This method is used when print press maximum core thickness for processing is 420 micron or less.

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High VICAT Cards
High VICAT cards are required in environments with high temperatures and stress. Applications include GSM and pay TV cards.

  • VICAT is a measure of how much a card material will soften with increasing temperature.  The higher the vicat, the higher the temperature necessary for lamination, and the higher the service temperature.
  • Standard PVC films (homo-polymer) have a VICAT softening point of 76°C. Increasing or decreasing this value requires additives and increases materials costs.
  • To achieve high VICAT values, we create special blends of ABS and PVC.

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Contactless Cards
Contactless cards are ideal for security access control and payment authorization.

  • They can be constructed in numerous ways. Typically, a pre-laminated inlay is covered by a highly opaque print film and overlay.
  • They offer several advantages: non-intrusive authorization, quicker processing time at point of use, and superior security of stored data.

Contacless Cards

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