Laminate Your Photo ID Cards for Extra Protection

What is Lamination?

Lamination is the process of applying additional clear overcoat to a photo ID card to provide extra protection from UV radiation and wear. This can extend the life of a card exposed to the sun or other harsh environments.

Note: it is not recommended to put lamination of any kind over magnetic stripes or smart card contact areas. It is possible to get special lamination material that has openings for magnetic stripes or contact smart cards.

Laminating Printers

Datacard has a printer designed for lamination: the SP-75 . It is even capable of laminating both sides of the card in one pass! (Other printers need to flip the card over and make a second pass through the laminator to do both sides.)

Fargo offers the DTC-550LC and the HDP-600LC as laminating printers. These printers come from the factory with a laminator module installed. The base model of these printers ( DTC-550 and HDP-600 ) are also field upgradable by adding these modules.

Neither the Evolis nor the Magicard printers we offer have an option for lamination.

Lamination Materials

Lamination material can vary in thickness, size, and additional features. They can add just an extra thick layer of varnish to the card (Fargo Thermal Overlaminate Film) to a layer of plastic protection (Fargo PolyGuard 1.0 mil). Overlaminate may also have security features such as standard or custom holograms embeded in the material.