Plastic cards

Bank sector norms define card dimensions as 85.72 mm x 54.03 mm x 0.76 mm. However, there are many cases in which the only thing that limit cards or pendant's shape is... human imagination. Thanks to the latest die cutting machines we are able to offer our Customers a product in any shape. Regardless of the form, the card quality is always at the highest level. It is we who adjust to our Customers' expectations, never the other way round. We are prepared either for using the traditional approach or for non-standard solutions.


The whole card production and personalization process is carried out, under one roof and continuous control of our specialists. The project starts in the Graphic Studio, where Customers' design is transferred to our equipment specification, through its own production line which performs the printing process, joining the plastic, printed sheets with overprint with laminate layers and their precise welding and punching, finishing with final product personalization and packing.
Our cards are printed with dry offset technology thanks to which, all hues and shape edges are projected more accurately than using traditional methods. We use special paints in two colour matching standards (CMYK and Pantone) adjusted to printing on plastics. Thanks to UV colours fixation the overprint is protected from smearing when it leaves the machine.

We are the first and the only Company that has in its offer ecological plastic cards made of biodegradable LUC-BIO plastics which disintegrate completely during only 39-month-long biodegradation process.

Type of plastic cards:

Plastic cards with overprint

The simplest plastic cards include only elements for visual identification and they are not equipped with magnetic or electronic information vehicle, i.e. a magnetic strip or a chip. Their main disadvantage is poor possibilities of automatic reading of data recorded and only printed bar code permits automatic card identification. Such plastic cards (ISO 7810) are precisely printed pieces of plastic material produced using waterless technology. Similarly to other types of cards, they are usually made of PVC, LUC-BIO (biodegradable PVC), and polyethylene, PET or ABS. With a batch of over 1000 units, a set of identical cards are printed and then individualized (personalized) by recording owner personal data or sequential number or individual information in the form of overprint or embossing. The latest printing technology, the DOD method, using ink-jet and printing is very precise and fast. With the DOD method it is possible to personalize up to 30000 cards per hour. In addition, a hologram or the so called "scratch system" may be put on a card.

Plastic cards with overprint are usually used as identifiers or regular customer cards or loyalty program project cards where a printed bar code is used.


Magnetic strip cards
Magnetic strip is the oldest and the cheapest holder of information which can be read automatically in card readers. Magnetic strip cards (ISO 7811) are usually used for creating systems with a large amount of cards where information holder is chosen based on existing technology infrastructure for reading the magnetic strip. In general, the readers can be found in most of institutions and service points. From the security point of view of the recorded data, a significant disadvantage of this type of card is the limitation for proper protection as the data recorded on a strip can quite easily be copied. In systems using magnetic strip cards all the important information should be recorded in the system computers and cards should be exclusively ID number carriers. Nowadays, the most popular are HICO (high coercivity) cards which are more resistant to demagnetization. The strip coercivity rate is high (approximately 4000 Oe) and data is recorded on three tracks: the first allows to record 75 alphanumerical digits, the second - 40 numerical digits, and the third - 107 numerical digits. On the market you can still find LOCO (low coercivity) cards which also include three tracks but low strip coercivity rate (approximately 350 Oe) and makes the cards more vulnerable to demagnetization.

Magnetic strip cards are the most widespread and the most popular cards, especially in payments systems and loyalty program projects.

Electronic contact cards

Electronic contact cards are equipped with electronic circuits called chips and therefore they are known as chip cards or smart cards. Chip is an electronic circuit immersed into plastic material. Electronic contact cards (ISO 7816) can be divided in two groups: memory cards which are equipped with memory for data storage and processor cards which are in fact individual computers with their own microprocessors, memory and card operation system. Resources in electronic contact cards are managed by a microprocessor using operation system and executing a program recorded in memory. Various types of electronic contact cards differ in terms of amount of space available for data storage, as well as in terms of recorded data security level. Electronic contact cards can be exclusively ID number carriers or they can process data which is fully protected against unauthorized access

Electronic contact cards are more and more popular in payments systems and loyalty program projects, as well as in advanced information protection systems.

Electronic proximity cards

Proximity cards look like typical plastic cards but inside them there is an electronic circuit immersed and consists of a chip and an aerial, and it is also called a transponder or a tag. Transponder uses a RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology for a contactless exchange of data with a decoder equipped with a transmitter and an aerial. There are lots of different transponders used: Unique, Q5, Hitag 1, Hitag 2, Mifare. Electronic contactless cards' characteristics are similar to those of contact cards except for their main disadvantage: mechanical contact wear during intense exploitation. Electronic proximity cards communicate with a reader without contact and are powered by induction. They are fully waterproof and normally can be used for several years. The cards may be simple ID number carriers or they can communicate with a transmitter bilaterally, depending on the electronic circuit type. In case of bilateral communication a reader can modify data recorded on a card, e.g. by adding points to a card at every purchase or by subtracting them when a loyalty program reward is given. Systems of communication with readers are protected against collision data damage and transmission encryption.

Electronic proximity cards are so popular thanks to the simplicity of use and durability, although they are much more expensive than the cards mentioned above. Proximity cards are dominant in the market of access control systems and work time registration. They are more and more popular in other systems, such as payments system or transport tickets.

Hybrid cards

Hybrid cards are plastic cards equipped with at least two independent information carriers which allow for automatic identification. The most common carriers of such information are: bar code, magnetic strip, electronic contact circuit and electronic proximity circuit. A card with a chip and a magnetic strip or a card with a bar code and a magnetic strip are examples of hybrid cards. A hybrid card is a card on which two different electronic circuits can be found for example a contact and a proximity circuit.

There are many different reasons why hybrid cards are used but most commonly they are used in case of development of a system which at the beginning was equipped with contact readers and then contactless readers have been introduced. Thanks to hybrid cards it is not necessary to use two kinds of cards or to exchange all old readers for new ones which obviously can be quite expensive.

Dual cards

Dual cards are equipped with only one electronic circuit (a chip) which, in turn, is equipped with two interfaces: a contact one and a proximity one. Dual cards are often mistaken for hybrid cards which are equipped with two electronic circuits (a contact one and a proximity one). The difference is in the fact that hybrid cards are equipped with two separate electronic circuits (i.e. two information carriers). The dual cards advantage is the possibility of using both proximity card readers and contact card readers to perform one operation.