1. By which methods are your cards produced?

We maintain the highest possible standards in producing our pvc cards using state-of-the-art digital graphics and fine-line 4 color process offset lithography. The printing is done on quality calendared substrate material, and overlaminated with pvc film for high durability and appearance. Certain features such as signature panels or computer print-on panels may be screenprinted on top of the lamination. Certain metallic, floodcoat or pearlized colors may be screenprinted on the substrate to achieve a desired effect. But as a rule our cards are offset printed and overlaminated, not screenprinted or surface-printed.

2. What is overlamination?

In pvc card manufacture, overlamination refers to the process of sandwiching two or more layers of thin substrate vinyl between layers of clear thin pvc film. These several layers are placed between shiny metal plates which give the finished plastic its polished surface. The metal plates with pvc layers are loaded into a laminating press and heated while they are under several hundred pounds of pressure. As the metal plates and layers of pvc cool down, they are removed from the laminating press. The several thin layers of pvc have become one thicker layer that cannot be peeled or separated. The individual cards are later diecut out of these laminated sheets.

3. Do I need a 30-mil card, or can I use a thinner material?

It depends on how the card will be used. If the card is to have a magnetic stripe and adhere to ANSI standards for credit/debit card construction, then it must be a 24 or 30-mil thickness with a +- variance of 10% or less. If it is to be embossed but not magnetic striped, e.g. a membership card or insurance ID card, it can be thinner than 24- or 30-mil but we do not recommend it. If the card is to be thermal or inkjet imaged, or personalized by a strike-on method, then the thickness requirements are less exacting and a thinner material may be used. The best way to determine a card's thickness is with a micrometer with digital read-out to .001 of an inch.

4. What is the difference between a low and high coercivity (LoCo and HiCo) magnetic stripe?

When ISO standards are used for magnetic stripe encoding and reading, the high coercivity magnetic stripe (2750 oersted and higher) will have far less failure than the low coercivity (300 oersted) stripe under normal usage. Data encoded on a LoCo card can be altered or destroyed by excessive use/wear, by contact with an ordinary household magnet (e.g. in a woman's pocketbook or wallet), by contact with other encoded cards, or by fraud. Failure can also happen with data encoded on a HiCo card, but the chances of accidental alteration are far lower. Customers should consider that every time a magstripe card fails to read, it means the data must be entered manually which incurs additional labor cost and time lost. Thus the initially higher cost of HiCo magnetic stripes will be recouped over short period of usage. For plastic cards that are intended for daily/frequent use, or for 12 months or more of infrequent use, we recommend the HiCo magnetic stripe and encoding.

5. How do I get "phone time" on my prepaid phone cards?

There are phone service providers who provide PINs, access numbers, phone time, and customer services, under a contract agreement. Allegheny will not sell these services but we will be happy to provide a list of suggested providers to contact for these services. Once you or your customer have purchased the phone time for your prepaid phone cards, you will be given a floppy disk with PINs (personal identification numbers) and usually there are batch and/or control numbers as well. This data should be given to Allegheny to be imaged onto your prepaid phone cards after the cards have been produced. The PINs should not be activated by the phone service provider until after you or your customer have taken delivery of the order. In certain cases such as retail sales, the PINs are not activated until the cards have been purchased by the end-user.

 
6. Can your cards be affixed (tipped) to a paper carrier?

Yes. Our cards can be personalized first and then affixed to the carrier, as in the case of an embossed or thermal imaged membership card that is part of a mailing. Or they can be affixed to a continuous carrier (or cut sheet) with the intention of personalizing both the card and carrier at a future time. In this situation it would be important to know the requirements of the printer that will be doing the personalization. In most cases our plastic cards cannot be imaged in a laser printer, because most laser printers operate at a temperature that will melt plastic cards. If your customer needs cards affixed to a carrier, he is probably looking for the thinnest possible card that will still have a printable surface on the front. For this we recommend a .010" overlaminated card with a clear print-on panel for the areas that are to be imaged. We also recommend a matte finish on the back of the card for better low-tack adhesion and to cut down on static electricity in production. A lower-cost version of this would be an unlaminated .010" card with UV clearcoated front and matte back.

7. What else do you produce besides plastic cards?