Smartcard Printer

A Smart Card ID is a plastic card with a built-in microprocessor and/or memory chip carrying personal identification data. When inserted into a reader, it transfers data to and from a central computer.

There are two categories of Smart Cards. The first is a Contactless Smart Card. It has no visible module and communicates by means of a radio frequency signal.

Physical contact between the card and a reader is not needed. This type of technology is also known as RFID (radio frequency identification). The second category is known as a Contact Smart Card. It operates by physical contact between the reader and the Smart Card's contacts.

Nisca has developed a process for integrating Smart Card technology into the ID card printing process. We have invented an in-line process that saves time and money by programming and/or reading the card in the printer before the printing starts.

There are advantages and disadvantages in both categories and the choice between which technology to make your investment will greatly depend on your particular application, card usage, reader, and networking technology available.

Currently, the majority of Smart Cards are either programmed (written) or read manually after the printing process has occurred. This process is time consuming, as a person has to manually insert a card into another device, identify each card in the system, and write to or read from it. There are also occurrences of bad chips, meaning that the chip being written to or read from is faulty. In this case, you have printed on a card that is not usable, thus have wasted the ink ribbon.

What makes the Nisca process extremely unique is that the printer always knows the position of the card during the process. This is critical when programming or reading Smart Cards to ensure correct programming or reading is occurring to the correct card.