Types of plastic cards by technology

[Brother]

Plastic card - a plate of standard dimensions ≈ 54x86x0.76mm in accordance with ISO 7810, which is made using a special plastic that is resistant to mechanical and thermal influences.

The main material for the manufacture is polyvinyl chloride (PVC), in some cases, to reduce the cost of making plastic cards, alternative materials of polymer origin, such as polystyrene, tislim and ABS, can be used.

Methods for recording information on the card:

• Graphical entry is the earliest and simplest form of entry, it is still used for all cards, for example, for bank cards: the name and surname of the cardholder, account number and information about the issuing bank, and a sample signature is also provided. In the future, the surname and first name began to be mechanically squeezed out - embroiled
• Embossing - mechanical squeezing of information on a card in the form of embossed signs, which allows you to speed up the payment process by imprinting all the necessary information on a slip
• Barcoding - printing of encoded information on a card in the form of stripes of contrasting color, usually black and white, for better protection, barcodes are covered with an opaque layer for the naked eye and read in infrared light.
• Magnetic stripe encoding- Magnetic recording of information under the most common three-track magnetic stripe standard usually contains:
  • on the first track - card number, holder's name, card expiration date, service code (maximum record length - 89 characters);
  • on the second track - card number, expiration date, service code (up to 40 characters). Service code is a two-digit code that defines the types of operations allowed for a given card, for example, 03 - operations performed by an ATM; 20 - operations require authorization from the issuer,
  • the third track most often contains a PIN code.
• Chip - A crystal with an integrated circuit embedded in a card that is used to store information. Chip cards are commonly referred to as smart cards
• Laser recording (optical cards) - WORM technology (write once - read many times). Optical cards have a higher capacity than memory cards; recording and reading information from such a card is performed by special equipment using a laser.