Filter
Top Products
3.2 PRINTING
Color imaging requires three passes of Card media underneath the Print Head. Card
media shuttles back and forth across the print head during this process. The ribbon feeds
between the image head and the card media and during printing advances from its supply
to its take-up reels in step with an advancing Card.
Heat, when generated at an image head element, transfers ribbon dye in a measured
quantity or fully saturated resin onto the print media. For color printing, the ribbon
advances from one color panel to the next between each imaging pass. A card exits a
Printer following the last pass. Monochrome printing for a black resin image requires an
additional pass, as does the application of a clear overlay varnish.
Printers employ an image head with a single row of 672 print head elements, 300 to the
inch (11.8 permillimeter). Notably, the capability forcard coverage exceeds the needsof a
standard card size by 0.115 inches (2.9mm), or about 34 dots. This excess supports both
programmable centering and full bleed imaging. Each element can generate 32 different
heat levels for color and a single heat level for resin monochrome and varnish.
980264-001 Rev. B 3-7
CHAPTER 3