Label and card printers of established manufacturers

Label printers are designed for printing individual adhesive labels and are preferably used in trade, industrial production or in the field of services. The devices are available both as permanently installed printers and as mobile handheld devices and print your desired labels, including barcodes, conveniently and quickly on site. There are three different types of printer: The compact desktop printer can easily print small quantities of 500 to 1000 labels. Mobile label printers, which can be used anywhere thanks to battery technology, are much more flexible. With high print volumes of more than 1000 labels per day, the industrial label printer impresses with its enormous printing speed with the usual high quality. We also differentiate between monochrome label printers and color label printers, such as the Epson ColorWorks series. Card printers can usually be conveniently connected to your own devices via a USB interface.

With a card printer, on the other hand, you can create high-quality cards made of PVC or sustainable materials such as wood fiber or cardboard, which are suitable for a variety of applications. Personalized plastic cards are required, for example, as customer and membership cards or as ID in access control. The cards are individually adaptable and can be equipped with various technologies and security features such as barcodes or RFID chips. Our price label printers and PVC cards with food certification are particularly suitable for labeling prices in bakeries and butchers.

All card printing processes have in common that heat is required for the printing process. By heating the ribbon on a thermal print head, paint is applied to the card. Depending on the type of color application, a distinction is made between direct printing and re-transfer printing. In direct printing - as the name suggests - the ribbon is applied directly to the card blank and evaporated into the top layer.

In the case of card printing in the re-transfer process, the print image is initially printed mirror-inverted on a so-called transfer film. This film is then laminated to the card blank using a rubber roller without heat. The card thus guarantees a longer shelf life. This printing process is usually used for chip cards because heat could damage the chip technology.

When printing labels, the printing process is quite similar, through the use of a thermal transfer film. Alternatively, labels are printed with inkjet cartridges, as is the case with conventional inkjet printers.

• Card printing: With colored dye sublimation printing, conventional plastic cards as well as composite materials (polyester core with PVC laminate) can be printed on both sides. In addition, ABS, PE and PVC cards can be made using the re-transfer printing process. Depending on the printer model, S&K Solutions also offers environmentally friendly card materials. These range from BIO PVC and recycled PVC to PET-G to wood fiber, grass or cardboard.
• Label printing: Depending on the label printer model, a distinction is made between different types of label rolls: Direct thermal rolls and thermal transfer rolls are usually based on a special paper that is suitable for thermal printing processes. Inkjet label rolls that take up the ink from the ink cartridges and do not smudge are required in particular for printing color labels. In addition to matt surfaces, glossy labels are also available.

There are many manufacturers in the field of card printing. We are partners of a selected list of renowned manufacturers:

• Zebra
• Matica
• Magicard
• Datacard
• Evolis
• HID Fargo
• Epson