Plastic cards with laser engraving

They are highly accurate, extremely durable, and have that characteristic grey ‘burned’ look. Laser engraving offers unrivaled precision and quality of markings, and is also an ideal choice for applications requiring advanced methods of securing cards.

Personalization of plastic cards using laser engraving is mainly used in situations where a very high level of card security is a priority. This technique allows for many advanced security elements to be placed on the cards, which effectively prevents the cards from being counterfeited.

Grayscale graphics and inscriptions, as well as monochrome text, are engraved directly on the card surface using a high-resolution laser beam. Thanks to this, elements printed with this method have a characteristic engraved appearance, unattainable with other printing techniques. They are also virtually impossible to counterfeit using other printing methods, and attempts to remove or modify them visibly damage the surface of the card.

Plastic cards with laser engraving – examples

Laser personalization is mainly used in the production of cards requiring a high level of security. The most common are:

• government institution identifiers – e.g., in some contries, governmental regulation, school and teacher ID cards require elements made using laser engraving.
• monthly tickets in the form of plastic cards – due to their high monetary value, tickets require advanced security. Laser engraving can be successfully used to add special security characters to such tickets.
• warranty cards for luxury goods – laser engraving can be used to apply special characters or complex graphics confirming the authenticity of these cards.
• VIP cards – similarly, elements can be made on VIP cards with a laser, making them impossible to forge and also emphasizing their exclusive appearance.

Laser engraving – technical possibilities

Laser personalization offers unrivaled technical possibilities, far exceeding those of traditional personalization with thermal transfer printers. In some cases, it even outperforms high-quality offset printing. The laser personalization technique can be used, among other things, to:

• basic personalization elements – personal data, serial number, photo, QR code, etc.
• microtext – text of very small size that is impossible to read without strong magnification
• Guilloché patterns – complex ornamental drawings composed of many thin curved lines, printed in various combinations with orderly features. These patterns are usually used as a background that is difficult to imitate.
• ‘ghost image’ – a miniature image, usually a photo, created in subtle monochromatic colors, used as an additional security feature on documents, identification cards, or banknotes.
• MLI – (Machine-readable Laser-induced) characters are microscopic characters that can be read by a machine but are difficult to detect by humans without specialized hardware.
• CLI characters – (Covert Laser-Readable Identification) microscopic characters designed to be hidden and visible only when using special devices.

Thanks to the very high resolution of laser engraving (up to 1200 dpi), signs made using this method provide exceptional protection against counterfeiting and forgery, making counterfeiting such cards virtually impossible.

Additionally, to increase the level of card security, laser engraved elements can be combined with other card security technologies, such as hologram or ‘invisible’ UV printing. Such combinations are often used, for example, in government documents such as ID cards or official identification cards.

Unparalleled precision, the characteristic monochromatic ‘burnt’ appearance of the applied patterns, and their above-average durability make laser personalization the preferred choice for printing cards requiring the most advanced security features. Our laser engraving system enables us to incorporate all the safety features described here.

Please contact us to consult the technical aspects of the laser personalization you require. Alternatively, we encourage you to use the quotation form to send us preliminary details of your order, providing the basic parameters – quantity, colors, required proximity modules, specifying in the comments the need for laser personalization.