direct card printers

what are they?

The direct-to-card printers print the image directly onto the surface of a PVC or a composite card. In this case, the printhead comes in direct contact with the surface of the card to deliver the pigment.

Direct Thermal Card Printer
Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer (D2T2), is the common abbreviation used but in recent years it is simply called direct card printer. The name “direct card printer” accurately depicts how the printer works. The printhead will have direct contact with the cards and the dye sublimation film placed in between. The image below shows how it operates.

The technology used here is pretty straightforward, the printhead diffuses the ribbon that directly sits on the card. This is most ideal for monochrome resin ribbon where no additional transfer film is needed, making the average print time shorter. Depending on individual card designs, you can expect approximately 800-100 prints in an hour.

As these are the main components that essentially makes up the entire printing process, it is not nearly as complicated as a Retransfer Thermal printer, hence, the price per printer is easily half of what a retransfer printer costs.

There are various models and brands of direct card printers, but the 2 main components are the printhead and the consumables (ribbons), both of which usually comes from the same manufacturing plant. Hence, when selecting printers, you can hardly go wrong with whichever brand you choose, it is typically the after service support and solutions that companies like us can provide, that may make your job easier when encountering a problem.

Card Printer Range from Team Nisca Japan

Premium entry-level card printer – PR-C101
Nisca PR-C101 is a compact entry level, single side card printer. It is the size of this small printer that makes it so attractive, especially for places with smaller working spaces or counters. Unfortunately, the monochrome range of colour is limited to only black and white. This printer also does not have a flipping mechanism, so users will need to print the front, flip the card and re-inset the card into the machine to complete printing on the back.

Card Printer Range from HiTi Taiwan

HiTi Digital, Inc., a professional manufacturer and supplier of digital photo products and services, they are well known for high-quality and innovative technology. Founded in February 2001, known by the name of Hi-Touch Imaging Technologies, Inc. Being a new entrant to the card printer industry, it has been a decade since they launched their first card printer and due to their nature of business in digital photo printing, its R&D team have redirected their knowledge and technology from their years of photo printing into card printing. CS200e was launch first launched in 2012 and after so many years, it has established its stability in print quality without any major complications and hence why it is still selling well till this day. This printer comes as a standard single sided printer, coupled with optional modules that can be easily installed.

CS220e is another model that looks identical to the CS200e, except that the CS220e has an additional capability of detecting transparent cards where the CS200e cannot. The sensors within many printers are unable to detect the presence of a transparent card.

Versatile Add-on Modules (Optional)

• Contactless encoding module

• Magnetic stripe encoding module

• High capacity input hopper

• Ethernet module

• Contact smart IC chip encoding module

• Flipper module