Year: 2008

Part design:

Makrofol® ID XtraLam is a new polycarbonate film for card production that can be laminated at temperatures as low as around 155 °C – i.e. approximately 30 °C lower than standard grades of Makrofol® ID. This results in several benefits for manufacturers of passes, ID cards, driver's licenses and industrial badges. In particular, they benefit from shorter cycle times during lamination, which enables much more cost-efficient production. The low lamination temperature does not impair the printability, wear resistance or durability of the cards. The properties of ID cards produced using the new film are comparable with standard grades of Makrofol® ID. The strength of the film laminate is also similar.

Thanks to the low lamination temperature, security characteristics integrated into the cards such as holograms or electronic components like chips and antennas are exposed to a lower thermal load. The same applies to the print image. This opens up a wider range of processing options during printing because inks that are less sensitive to heat can be used. Overall, energy consumption and thus energy costs are cut in card production. Moreover, the production plants are exposed to lower temperatures, which extends their service life.