How to make plastic membership cards？

Plastic membership cards typically undergo a series of production processes, including raw material procurement, printing, lamination, die-cutting, personalisation, quality inspection, packaging and shipping.

Plastic cards, such as credit cards, ID cards, and membership cards, typically undergo a series of production processes, from plastic sheets to finished cards.

 

The following is a detailed breakdown of the key stages for plastic membership cards.

The base material is typically polyvinyl chloride (PVC) due to its durability, flexibility, and printability.

We source PVC sheets of various thicknesses from material suppliers, with standard thicknesses including 0.15mm, 0.2mm, 0.25mm, 0.3mm, and so on.

In addition to standard PVC sheets, we also offer transparent PVC sheets, coloured PVC sheets, or eco-friendly materials such as ABS, PET, and PC materials.

Plate making is performed based on the designed artwork, typically using PS plates or film. Currently, the most commonly used method is CTP plate making, which is convenient and efficient.

Common printing methods include offset printing, screen printing, and digital printing, which can be selected based on the customer’s specific requirements.  

• Offset printing: Using offset printing technology, high-resolution designs, text, or logos are printed on the surface of the sheet material, ensuring clear and vibrant images, fast printing speeds, suitability for large-scale production, high precision, and rich tonal gradation.
• Screen Printing: For simple designs or metallic effects, screen printing is used, where ink is squeezed through the mesh openings of the screen and pressed onto the surface of the sheet material. Screen printing produces thick ink layers with strong three-dimensional effects.
• Digital Printing: Suitable for small-batch production, it can directly output RGB colors without requiring plates, enabling quick customization.

Laminating involves bonding multiple layers of PVC sheets together into an integrated unit through physical and chemical processes.

The appropriate PVC sheet thickness is selected based on the card’s thickness, with an additional transparent layer of film added to the top and bottom layers (the film is used to protect the printed colors from scratching).

The top and bottom layers are then heated and pressed between two steel plates using a laminating machine, followed by cooling and temperature reduction to achieve the desired laminated shape of the sheet and film layers.

The surface finish of lamination can be categorized as glossy or matte. For magnetic stripe cards, magnetic stripe positioning is also completed during this process.

 

Common die-cutting equipment includes fully automatic card-cutting machines, semi-automatic die-cutting machines, punch press die-cutting machines, and router cutters.

Using metal moulds or die-cutting tools, the laminated sheets are die-cut into individual small cards, which are referred to as card blanks.

 

After initial inspection, the die-cut card bases can be customized according to customer requirements, such as magnetic stripe encoding for magstripe cards, embossing for plastic membership cards, laser engraving for club cards, hot stamping for business cards, barcodes/QR codes for loyalty cards, scratch-off film for gift cards, and die-cutting round or slot holes for ID badge cards.

 

The finished cards with customized processes are inspected according to unified quality standards for appearance and functionality, and the inspected products are handed over to the packaging department.

 

The inspected finished cards are counted, packaged, and prepared for shipment.  

Standard packaging for regular cards is 250 cards per box and 2,500 cards per carton.

 

If you wish to customize cards to your own style, please feel free to contact us. We are always here for you.