There have been multiple types and brands of adhesive backed cards on the market for some time: Paper and Mylar. They can be either CR-79 or CR-80.
It is expected that you will have issues printing on these cards no matter what brand of cards or printer you are using. Card jams, double feeding, and print quality issues are a few examples.
Some simple things to check for:
- Check to make sure that the adhesive between the mylar or paper is not “leaking” out of the edges causing the cards to stick together.
- Check to make sure your printer rollers are extremely clean. It is recommended that you manually scrub them with 99% isopropyl alcohol regularly.
- Blow the printer out frequently when using paper backed cards as paper dust will accumulate on the rollers and cause transport problems.
- Clean all of the transport rollers more frequently when printing on either type of card.
- Check to make sure your printer settings are set for CR-79 if applicable. Please make sure your printer supports CR-79 cards if that is what you are using.
Paper Backed Cards:
Badge printers were designed to transport PVC cards and do not have textured rollers to aid in the transport like paper printers do. Paper backed cards have a higher rate of card jamming do to the flexible nature of the cards. The paper backing may also flex during the printing process and cause image quality issues such as a “blurry” print or resin not sticking to the surface of the card.
Mylar Backed Cards:
In our experience, the Mylar backed cards have somewhat fewer issues. One reason is that the Mylar cards are more rigid and have fewer issues causing jams. This is not to say that the same problems won’t occur when using Mylar vs. Paper.
NOTE: DO NOT print on these cards with a Fargo HDP5000. Fargo will void the warranty.
