20 mil Plastic Gift Cards

[PrintFast NJ]

We need to bring production of 20mil plastic business cards and gift cards in-house. Our current trade vendor has a nearly 50% quality reject rate from our team. My question is what equipment is used to produce approximately 10,000 cards per month? Many thanks for your input.

 

[kdw75]

We run them on our Ricoh 7200.

 

[KopyBoss]

We print them on our Xerox Iridesse

 

[jdodoubleg]

We run them on our Ricoh 7200.

I may have asked you this in a previous post about something else. What material are you printing on for your 20mil plastic cards? The best I have been able to do is a 14 mil plastic, which is out of spec as far as the gsm is concerned, but it is flexible enough to not matter.
Also, how are you die cutting your cards? My rotary die cutter hates plastic.

 

[azehnali]

where do you buy the plastic for digital use?

 

[jwheeler]

where do you buy the plastic for digital use?

We use Synaps XM by Nekoosa on our Konica Minolta's and we get it through our paper supplier (KellySpicers). We mostly use the 10mil, but we get requests for the 14mil and it runs just fine. It doesn't do so great through our slitter/cutter/creaser, so we have to cut on our guillotine. We also round corner every time because the corners can be very sharp.

 

[azehnali]

thanks

 

[jwheeler]

@kdw75 and @KopyBoss , I have the same question as @jdodoubleg ...what digital plastic stock have you found that is 20mil?

The 14mil we run is 450gsm and is already pushing beyond the max for our KM C7090 which is spec'd for 400gsm max. Following the chart for Synaps XM, a 20mil would be 600gsm!

 

[pippip]

I had a Xerox tech tell me about a local printer (ireland) that uses his iridesse (x2) to print these and has expanded it into his primary product.

He prints fronts and back separately and "glues" them together. He supplies all the top brands now in Ireland with gift cards etc.

I think he brought in specialist finishing equipment from Germany for them.

 

[Robohopar]

@kdw75 and @KopyBoss , I have the same question as @jdodoubleg ...what digital plastic stock have you found that is 20mil?

The 14mil we run is 450gsm and is already pushing beyond the max for our KM C7090 which is spec'd for 400gsm max. Following the chart for Synaps XM, a 20mil would be 600gsm!

The Konica 7090 runs the 450gsm 14mil plastic without any issues?

 

[jwheeler]

The Konica 7090 runs the 450gsm 14mil plastic without any issues?

Yes, we have run it several times. Though, as I mentioned above, it can build up some static, so it doesn't run so great through our slitter/cutter/creaser. We have to cut on our guillotine.

 

[jdodoubleg]

I run the 450gsm 14mil Synaps XM. As far as 10000 cards, you can print all those in an hour or 2. Currently we cut ours on a couple of our 5x10 Colex cutters as this material just snaps belts on our rotary die cutter. You can get the material at WCP Solutions on the west coast.

 

[Print_1]

Double edge will cut those perfectly on your 5x10

 

[jdodoubleg]

Yes, we have run it several times. Though, as I mentioned above, it can build up some static, so it doesn't run so great through our slitter/cutter/creaser. We have to cut on our guillotine.

To alleviate the static, I use an all-metal rack and leave the stack on there for 1 day if the static is really bad. If I have to turn them around on the same day, I will put them on my jogger and let them bounce around for a little bit, not as good as waiting a day but gets the job done.