Card body materials

Card Body Materials

Don’t break your customers’ trust

© 2011 Ivan Dierckx Confidential Page 1 of 9

In today’s card applications PVC is still the most used card body material. Although
PVC has numerous disadvantages, the most important factor to use it is price. PVC
simply is still the most cost effective way to produce a card.

With the current market trend to combine cards with chip technology or important
card holder privileges the actual value of the card is no longer limited to the price of
the card body material. For example the cost of a chip or simply the cost of issuing a
photo-ID card surpasses the card body cost significantly.

In recent years a wide variety of polymer materials have been developed to
overcome the many issues of PVC card bodies within specific application fields.

In this whitepaper we would like to point out the pro’s and con’s of the different
materials and material combinations to allow our customers to pick the right card for
the job.

Please bear in mind that this brochure ONLY focuses onto the card body material.
When looking at the life expectancy of the finished card, also personalisation and
printing have an influence in the matter. Our specialists will gladly advice you about
all the aspects of card durability.

Physiological aspects of the Card Body
 Optical quality ( whiteness )
In card manufacturing, white is not always white. In the production of white polymers,
several additives are introduced in the molten material. One of the additives is
TIO2 ( Titanium Dioxide ), which is used to regulate the opacity. The amount of TIO2 directly
effects the colour of the polymer. Some white cards are oriented toward blue-white, some
are oriented toward red-white. Furthermore, the glues used to form a coherent binding
between the different layers oxidise during lamination creating a yellowish effect. Since most
inks are transparent, the background influences how our eyes perceive the colour of the
printing. The choice of card material can have a noticeable effect on colour consistency.

 Surface finish
There are two properties related to the surface finish that influence the overall look and feel
of the card; surface smoothness and surface porosity. The porosity of a certain polymer is
related to the specific formulation the polymer manufacturer uses in his manufacturing
process.
Surface smoothness is almost completely related to the quality and finish of the lamination
plates used in the manufacturing process. High quality lamination plates are precision
manufactured, and thus expensive. Card manufacturers using high quality plates will have to
charge more per card then manufacturers using sub-standard quality plates.
The surface finish not only has an effect on the overall look and feel of the card, it also
determines which type of personalization technology can be used.


 Scratch resistance
Often the card is also used as a marketing tool. Whether the card is uses in a loyalty
application or as a corporate ID card, the card will act as a representation of your companies’
quality. Depending upon the choice of outer laminate material, the card surface will be
sensitive to scratches. Also the graphical card design will influence the way surface scratches
will affect the overall looks of your card. For example, a card with a dark design will look
classy but scratches will be extremely visible.

 Rigidity
Every material combination has its typical rigidity or stiffness. A stiffer card creates the
feeling of higher quality. Besides this subjective aspect, also a practical aspect needs to be
taken into account; When personalizing a card, it is exposed to heat and pressure from a
thermal printhead, or deformation forces from embossed characters. Depending on the
material choice the card will be bent after personalisation.

 Bend and twist resistance
Resistance to bending and twisting is controlled with a specially
developed system in the card production facility. ISO standards
determine the minimum cycles a card has to tolerate before it breaks or
cracks. This material property is an important value to be considered
when evaluating card life expectancy.

 UV resistance ( yellowing )
Depending on the application, this might be an important aspect in the choice of the card
body composition. If the card is only exposed to daylight sporadically, you don’t need to be
worried about yellowing. When on the other hand the will be worn in the sun for a big part
of its life, choosing a UV resistant card body is of the utmost importance. When polymer
films are manufactured, a multiplicity of additives are mixed with the molten base material
to end up with a product that fulfils the needs of its application. Amongst other things these
additives contain UV absorbers and inhibitors and fillers ( eg. Calcium carbonate ).
Formulating a PVC material with low levels of UV absorbers and inhibitors and high amounts
of filler will create a cheap material with low quality. Even when using the same polymer
basis noticeable quality differences will arise depending on the material used by the card
manufacturer. This partially explains why Chinese PVC cards are so cheap...

 Bonding strength ( delamination )
ISO cards are made up out of multiple layers. Since printing inks are not able to fuse together
with the card body materials, the layers are adhered to each other using a heat activated
glue coating. The quality of ink and coating determine the strength of the adhesion of the
different layers. ISO standards determine a minimal lamination strength of 3Nm/mm. In
practice this value is rather low and high end card manufacturers will strive to a much higher
level of bonding strength. Using alternative card materials and coating formulations adds to
the lamination quality.


 Resistance to chemicals
During its lifecycle the card body is exposed to a variety of chemical influences. One of the
solutions a card is exposed to most frequent
is saline solutions ( eg. Sweat ). Also
detergents are a common source of
problems. All these external influences have
an adverse effect on the card life
expectancy. Choosing the correct card base
material based upon the application has
became a necessity. The application can be
extreme, for example in many
underdeveloped countries cards are stored
in the cardholders’ shoes, but on the other hand a member card of the gym also has an
elevated exposure to saline.

 Thermal stability
Last but not least, the resistance to high or low temperatures has to be taken into
consideration. Leaving a parking card behind the windshield of a card in the summertime is in
many cases a mistake that ruins the card. On the other hand, some materials get brittle and
break at temperatures slightly below freezing.

Other aspects
 Cost
The price of a card is in many cases the most important factor to decide between different
suppliers or materials. Regrettably one often forgets that the largest cost within a card
project is not the card itself. The cost of issuing the card, personalizing the card, collecting
and processing transaction data and reissuing the card after failure is often much higher than
the price of the card body. There is also the psychological value of a card. This can be looked
at from a marketing point of view; when your company stands for a quality product or
service, you don’t want your card failing since that directly effects the way the cardholder
thinks about your organisation. A card failing can, on the other hand, also have serious


consequences onto the security measures within the organisation.

 Ecological impact
Although there are recycling procedures in place for certain
polymers, cards are rarely entered into them.

One kilogram of PVC has a carbon footprint of approximately
4.1 kilograms of CO2. Since the average card weighs 5.07
grams, the CO2 footprint of a card is 21 grams, including the
energy and water consumed in production.

In today’s marketplace, biocards are gaining popularity. We
offer our customers a broad range of ecological alternatives to
the standard PVC cardbody materials.

Material Comparison
Next to the traditional card materials like PVC, PETG and Polycarbonate, Syx-Graphics is cooperating
with renowned material engineering specialists. The research done in this field has resulted in the
development of our polyXTREME cardbody, with the characteristics described further in this
document.

Material Characteristics Main Advantage Main Disadvantage

PVC  amorphous, low Vicat  easy to use  weak properties
determining life
& blends  laser-engraving possible  cost-effective time

PETG  amorphous  ecological  weak properties
polyester,low Vicat determining life
time

PC  amorphous, high Vicat  higher  expensive
durability + (materials and
 high quality laser- laser processing)
engraving
engraving
 specified for Gov’t use

PET  semi-crystalline, high  toughness  additional layers
Vicat req’d for
lamination


Evidence based testing
When designing your card solution, it is imperative to choose the card body material that your
project requires. The only way of making a valid choice between all materials offered is to rely on
documented test results, rather than just accepting manufacturers’ statements. The test results
made available in this whitepaper are all based upon lifetime tests according to ISO24789-1/-2, and
where performed by a certified lab.
These tests, designed to indicate life expectancy of cards, include;

– Xenon cycle test: 24-40h Xe, 5000x bending, …

– Plasticized vinyl storage: 48h, 50 ± 3°C

– Thermal and humidity aging: 50 ± 3°C 93%RH, 48h, bending 5000x

– Thermal shock: -35 to 50°C

– Paint shaker

– Thermal and humidity cycling

– Card flexure

Xenon Cycle Test
Xenon cycles: 24-40h Xe, (550W/m2, 290-800nm, 50±5°C), 5000x bending, …
Follow-up colour differences (yellowness)


Plasticized Vinyl Storage
Plasticized vinyl storage: 48h, 50±3°C

weigth of 5kg
lamination plate
7sheets PVC of 70µm (6751521)
2 cards next to eachother
lamination plate

Thermal and Humidity Aging
1 Cycle for every card:
Time (hours) Temperature C RH(%) 80
480 50 80
1,00 -35 60
6 60 90
168 50 80 40
Temperature (C)

20

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000

-20

-40
Time (hours)

Follow-up: Bending over width (check after 100, 250, 500 and 1000x, after 500x cards were turned)
Every material check after 1 cycle (= equal to 1 year).
Card is successful if no visual failure after 1000x bending.


Card Flexure
Card flexure: 1Hz, over width and over length, stop after 100.000x,
failure if break, >13mm crack or sum of <5 cracks >13 mm.


Conclusion
Considering the empirical data provided in the above, we can plot the life expectancy of a certain
type of card body composition in the following graph;

12

10

8
polyXTREME
PC
6
PET-G
ABS
4
PVC

2

0
Card Body Material

Copyright notice
This document and its content is copyright of Ivan Dierckx - 2011. All rights reserved.

Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited other than
the following:

 you may print or download to a local hard disk extracts for your personal and non-
commercial use only
 you may copy the content to individual third parties for their personal use, but only if you
acknowledge the website as the source of the material

You may not, except with my express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the
content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any website or other form of electronic retrieval
system.

Ivan.dierckx@telenet.be


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