Embossing and Printing Testing
Overview - Bulk Encoder / Embosser
In card production, a card manufacturer's Bulk Encoder and Embossing process personalises blank plastic cards with customer data, embosses and prints to the surface of the card. This process is also known as card personalisation, which can vary depending on the card technology and design.The performance of your Bulk Encoder(s) is vitally important in the production of a totally reliable card product. The entirety of your card fleet will be Encoded/Embossed through these devices, and like anything mechanical, it can on occasion deviate from its optimal performance. In most instances the general quality performance of the Bulk Encoder is an unknown factor, and it may be found to be serviced without ever checking the quality of encoding, embossing and printing. A Bulk Encoder can therefore produce cards with poor quality, and often no-one will ever know that it requires urgent maintenance.
Printed and Embossed Card Assortment
Testing
CTI's Personalisation testing covers the monitoring or evaluation of bulk encoder cards and beyond it. The embossing and printing of the card is an aspect of these programs but CTI can tailor a testing regime that checks what you want tested - including focusing on embossing and printing.If severe enough, the embossing may hit and then grind against the coin guard nibs on an insertion reader, depending on how the card is fed through the slot, subsequently causing friction and vibration. This may damage the embossing over time and/or induce Jitter (resulting in read errors). The embossing may also be misaligned on imprinting machines (e.g. Non powered Zip Zap's).