Card Laminator
A card laminator may not be sitting on everyone’s office desk but it’s a piece of equipment that can save companies in particular, money in the long run.
Laminating cards can be expensive if you are outsourcing the work outside of your business. Some may consider laminating to be excessive but for protecting valuable ID cards, they make good sense. Let’s take a look at how the lamination process works.
Basically, the application of high temperature allows a thick plastic film to be applied to the card folowing printing. There are generally two levels of thickness although there is now film available regarded as extra thin which are often used in cases of creating holographic patterns but they may not be ideal for wear and tear protection.
There are several benefits to laminating cards. We’ve identified three:
- As mentioned, it offers protection against wear and tear. Handling cards on a continual basis and removing them from pouches, bags and wallets will eventually take it’s toll on an unprotected card but with lamination, their lifespan increases significantly.
- Busiensses where security swiping is in place for employess to enter and exit building need laminated cards simply to increase the card’s life span. In fact, this type of protection will increase the card’s life by thousands of swipes so except for unforseen circumstances, you’ve got it basically for the term of your emloyment.
- Extra security measures can be included within the lamination. Finer details such as seen within holographic patterns are ideal especially where security is vital such as we see at major airports.
Choosing a card laminator is going to depend on price and features. Price will definitely dictate any choice made by personal consumers however, large businesses with lots of employees will generally be attracted to the high end machines.
At the bottom of the ladder you could go for cheaper machines and could expect to pay under one hundred dollars. The high end machines will set you back several thousand. These make good sense for large businesses who could make great savings by purchasing once and perform the job in-house and avoid more expensive outsourcing costs.
