A label printer mechanism that is configured to produce and affix custom printed customer engagement labels to personalized plastic cards and other substrates. The custom printed customer engagement labels can be used for a number of purposes including, but not limited to, instructions to the intended recipients of personalized plastic cards for activation of the personalized plastic cards, marketing of products and/or services to the recipients, and combinations of activation and marketing.

An image is formed on a principal surface and a side face of a card. A thermal transfer printing apparatus includes a first feeding unit configured to feed an intermediate transfer medium including a transfer layer that is disposed on one surface of a substrate in such a manner as to be peelable from the substrate, a second feeding unit configured to feed a thermal transfer sheet including a colorant layer disposed on one surface of a base material, a printing unit configured to heat the thermal transfer sheet based on image data and transfer an ink of the colorant layer onto the transfer layer to form an image, and a transfer unit configured to heat the intermediate transfer medium and transfer the transfer layer having the image formed thereon onto a principal surface and a side face of the card.

The present invention relates to a positioning device for rotatably and rectilinearly positioning a card with respect to a treatment unit having an axis of treatment. The positioning device comprises a card holder for holding a card in a fixed position, wherein the card holder defines a virtual card surface plane coincident with the surface of a card facing the treatment unit once the card is placed in the card holder, and wherein the card holder defines a virtual card center point coincident with the intersection point of the axis of treatment and the virtual card surface plane. The positioning device further comprises a manipulator to which the card holder is attached, wherein the manipulator comprises: a cardanic element with a first axis of rotation and a second axis of rotation; and a virtual pivot point being the intersection of the first and the second axis of rotation.

A recording apparatus includes a control unit that acquires information regarding shapes and sizes of a recording material and a transport material to which the recording material is to be bonded. The control unit is configured to operate in a first recording mode in which a positioning pattern is recorded on the transport material, the positioning pattern being used to position the recording material on the transport material, and also configured to operate in a second recording mode in which the data is recorded on the recording material positioned on the transport material during transport of the transport material.

A thermal transfer print ribbon having radiation curable ink thereon is used to print on a surface of a plastic card. The use of radiation curable thermal transfer printing to print on the card surface increases the durability of the printing compared to regular (i.e. non-radiation cured) thermal transfer printing once the radiation curable ink is cured. As a result, a protective laminate or coating need not be applied to the card surface to protect the printing.

A thermal transfer print ribbon having radiation curable ink thereon is used to print on a surface of a plastic card. The use of radiation curable thermal transfer printing to print on the card surface increases the durability of the printing compared to regular (i.e. non-radiation cured) thermal transfer printing once the radiation curable ink is cured. As a result, a protective laminate or coating need not be applied to the card surface to protect the printing.

DOD ink delivery systems and methods are described herein that are used in DOD card printing systems of card processing systems for supplying ink for DOD printing on plastic cards of the type that bear personalized data unique to the intended cardholder and/or which bear other card information. The DOD ink delivery system is configured to recirculate the ink, or have a second pressure damper container that provides damping to eliminate large and abrupt spikes in ink pressure which can disturb the meniscus of the ink in each nozzle of the print head generated by a vacuum system, or simultaneously operate a supply pump at a lower flow rate than a return pump during an autofill/autodrain procedure on the ink delivery system.

Techniques for operating a printer are provided. In an example, the printer can include a print head a cure light and a controller. The controller can be configured to move the print head relative to a print media to print a given image, to move the cure light relative to the print media at a cure speed in response to the cure light passing over a printed portion of the given image to cure the ink of the given image, and to move the cure light at an index speed in response to the cure light passing over a non-printed portion of the given image, wherein the index speed is greater than the cure speed.

According to an embodiment, a card issuing system which issues cards includes: a print image generation portion which generates print data to perform printing on the card; an overcoat image generation portion which generates overcoat data, which is data on an overcoat for the print data generated by the print image generation portion; and a printing portion which performs printing of the print data generated by the print image generation portion, and the overcoat data generated by the overcoat image generation portion on the card. The overcoat image generation portion generates the overcoat data with which an area where a design quality is required in the print data is subjected to overcoating based on pixels to be printed by the print data, and an area where durability is required in the print data is subjected to overcoating which covers the area.

A document carrier device is provided for supporting and transporting a document in a document processing system. The device includes a workpiece carrier having a support surface for receiving a document; a heating device having a heat conducting element for transferring heat generated; and an actuator for causing relative movement between the heat conducting element and the workpiece carrier to change between a first mode of operation and a second mode of operation. In the first mode of operation, the heat conducting element extends, without thereby being in mechanical contact with the workpiece carrier, through one or more recesses in the workpiece carrier in the region of the support surface to be able to transfer heat generated by the heating device, at least in part, to a document received. In the second mode of operation, the heat conducting element has a distance from the support surface which is increased.