Magnetic Stripe ID Cards

Magnetic stripe cards also known as magstripe cards are PVC ID cards containing a band of magnetic material embedded in the resin on the back of the card. Magnetic stripe ID cards store updatable information on a magstripe, which is read when the card is swiped through a magnetic stripe card reader.

There are two 2 types of magnetic stripe ID cards: high coercivity (HiCo) and low coercivity (LoCo). Usually low coercivity magnetic stripes are brown, while high coercivity stripes are almost black. HiCo cards are more reliable than LoCo cards, as their magnetic layer is denser and much less susceptible to stray field erasure from magnets, making them a better solution for those cards which are frequently used and/or require a longer life. Low coercivity stripes are easily damaged by even brief contact with magnets and are used for low value or low usage applications. Virtually all bank cards and government ID cards today are encoded on high coercivity striped ID cards that have been personalized using an ID card printer. HiCo magstripe ID cards can hold 79 alpha/numeric characters on Track1, 40 numeric characters only on Track2 and 107 numeric characters only on Track3.

Advantidge supports magnetic stripe ID Cards as a popular low cost solution for secure access control systems and are often used for credit and identification cards as well as transportation tickets, ATM cards, bank cards, gift cards, loyalty cards, driver’s licenses, telephone calling cards, membership cards, and electronic benefit transfer cards such as food stamps.  

Advantidge offers many ID card printing solutions featuring magnetic stripe encoding capabilities:

• HID Global Fargo DTC400e Easy and flexible way to print and encode plastic ID cards.
• HID Global Fargo DTC550 For versatile, reliable card production that encodes magnetic stripe in the same pass as card printing.
• Zebra P110i Reliable, compact and easy to use printer with 3 Track HiCo/LoCo Magnetic Encoder.
• Zebra P120i High-tech materials and new electronics in an affordable dual-sided card printer with magnetic encoding. 
• Magicard Enduro Single or dual-sided card printing with ISO magnetic encoding.
• Magicard Rio2e The preferred printer for secure access control single-sided cards with magnetic stripe encoding.
• Evolis Pebble4 For any type of application that requires single-sided printing of id badges with magnetic encoding.
• Evolis Dualys3 For any type of application that requires dual-sided printing of id badges with magnetic encoding.
• Nisca PR5350 For high speed, low cost dual-sided printing with magnetic encoding.