RFID Card Printers & Printer Supplies
Normally, school districts issue cards with the school district's name, logo, and perhaps a little more information on one side of the card. That information is the same on all cards, and that side of the card can be pre-printed. We call such cards, Pre-printed 1 side.
The other side of each card usually includes customized information for a particular student (e.g. name). The data from your district's Student Information System can be used to pre-print the customized, second side of the card. We call such cards, Pre-printed 2 sides.
Cards delivered to you as, Pre-printed 2 sides, can be more convenient, as you receive them ready to issue to students. However, each such card that is not actually picked up and used by a student is wasted. It's already pre-printed with student information, so it cannot be used by any other student. Of course, prices for Pre-printed 2 sides cards are more expensive, so some vendors of RFID cards will lead you in that direction.
Also, what will you do when a student loses a pre-printed 2 sides card. How will you provide a new card to the student. If you have an RFID card printer, you can print a new card to replace the lost one. If you don't, well maybe you better. So, if you purchase pre-printed 2 sides you pay the highest possible price per card, and you still need to buy an RFID card printer.
Most school districts purchase Pre-printed 1 side RFID cards. They print the second side of the card when they are certain a student will use it. This approach avoids waste. Cards only get printed for students who will actually use them.
Another third approach is possible too: instead of printing directly on the second side of the card, a self-adhering label can be printed and affixed to the second side of the card. This saves a lot of time and money. A printer designed to print directly on RFID cards costs about $1,500. The cost of ribbons for those printers works out to about $0.50/card, and it takes about 20 seconds to print custom student information on a card. A good label printer costs about 75% less than an RFID card printer. The ribbon and label cost (together) is $0.01/card, and it takes only 1 second to print a label.
Printing labels instead of printing on the cards saves $0.49/card and eliminates long lines of parents waiting to pick up cards, because label printers are so much faster than RFID card printers. Label printers are also much simpler, mechanically, than RFID printers, so they are much cheaper and tend to last much longer.
If you've never heard of printing labels instead of printing cards, well that's because we pioneered this technique, because it's both faster and more economical. Our competitors prefer to sell expensive printers and suppiies, because it's good for their bottom lines. Is it good for yours?
Of course, there are situations where it does make sense to print the custom student information directly on the cards. We can help you decide which solution best serves your needs. Either way, we don't manufacture or sell printers, but we will introduce you to some of the largest distributors with some of the lowest prices and best service for RFID card printers, label printers, ribbons and labels.
Please remember, since we don't or profit on printers or ribbons, our only incentive is help you find the best solution for your transporation department.