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Teslin®
ID Card Details |
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Equipment Needed Supplies Needed Making the Card Trouble Shooting |
Teslin Cards compared to PVC
Cards
There is a misconception that laminated cards are inferior to PVC Cards.
Laminated Teslin cards are very durable, as long as the laminate is of high
quality (the only kind of laminate we sell). The highest end PVC Card
Printers that we offer have the ability to apply a laminate to the printed
card, as the laminate adds substantially to the life of the card. The vast
majority of PVC Card Printers print on (CR-80) credit card size (2-1/8" x
3-3/8") cards only. Some higher end printers will print on CR-90 (2-3/8" x
3-5/8") and CR-100 (2-5/8" x 3-7/8") size cards. With a laminated card
virtually any size is possible. We offer Teslin Cards and Laminates in 5
sizes. We offer the standard Credit Card size, the IBM/Data Card size,
Military Card size, Luggage Tag size, and the Jumbo/Event card size. We have
matching Butterfly Laminating Pouches to match these sizes. These pouches
are essentially the same size as the card, and once laminated you end up
with virtually a borderless card. Teslin cards printed with Epson DuraBrite
and UltraChrome inks are
considered by us to be archival quality and fade resistant. Read about
Epsons Inks at
www.epson.com.
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Teslin Card Thickness
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Equipment Needed to make a Teslin Laminated ID Badge
You need a laminator and an inkjet or laser printer, as well as software.
EspressoID®
is a great low cost ID Badge Making software that allows you to maintain a
database(s), capture pictures live, and utilize as many card designs as you
need. You can have different card designs for different departments,
different security access levels, etc. The printer and
laminator can be used for different office chores and do not need to be
dedicated to card production. The only special supplies you need are
Teslin Perforated Cards and
Butterfly Laminates. We have
laminators available that will laminate card
size items only, laminators that will laminate letter size items as well as
cards, and even a laminator that will laminate up to 12 inch wide items as
well as cards. We also carry the laminates
for letter and larger size items.
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Supplies Needed to make a Teslin Laminated Card
Teslin perforated card sheets and
Butterfly laminates.
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Making
the Card with our Teslin Perforated Card Sheets
Teslin Perforated Card sheets have one or more card on them. The cards are
held in the sheet by perforations so that the sheet will pass through the
printer. Once the cards are printed, you simply peel the card out of the
sheet, place the card in a Butterfly Laminate, and run the card through the
laminator which fuses the laminate to the Teslin Card. We suggest you place
the card and laminate in a carrier prior to running it through the
laminator. The carrier is just a heavy weight paper product that is made to
carry the card and laminate through the laminator. It also keeps the rollers
of the laminator clean. All laminates we sell come with carriers. Please use
them when laminating. A carrier will last many passes through the laminator.
We suggest that you use the 'Photo' setting for the printer you are using. EspressoID has the 4" x 6" one card sheets built into the drop down menus for easy selection of the size of card you are utilizing. These sheets are to be placed in your printer in the portrait position (the short edge feeds into the printer). EspressoID also has the 8 Credit card Teslin sheet built into the pre-defined card layouts. If using the eight card sheets, you select eight cards from your EspressoID database and than click the print button. It will than print all eight cards on the sheet at once. Once you have removed a card from the sheet, the sheet can no longer be printed on as the hole where the card(s) resided will cause the printer to jam.
We always suggest placing just one sheet at a time in your printer tray. If you are printing the back side as well as the front, the software (EspressoID) will prompt you to print the back once the front is printed. You just flip the sheet over, place it back in the input tray, and click the 'print back' button.
If you are using the 4" x 6" one card sheets, you need to
set your printer for printing on a 4" x 6" sheet. This size is common in the
sheet size options of most inkjet printer drivers. If you are using one of
the Epson DuraBrite or UltraChrome ink printers to print on Laser Teslin, we suggest that
you also increase the saturation level 25%, and the Cyan, Magenta, and
Yellow setting 15% as a starting point. You can save these setting on most
Epson printers, so that whenever you use the printer to print cards you can
simply select the saved settings. If you are using the inkjet printer
exclusively for card printing, make these settings your printer defaults.
Refer to the printer manufacturer's instructions for more information.
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Trouble Shooting
As with any printed material, printer jams and misfeeds are possible. If
you are having trouble with the sheets feeding into your printer or you are
getting ink smearing, we suggest that you take the Teslin sheet, place it in
a carrier, and run it through the laminator. This will flatten the sheet and
printing problems (smearing) and feeding problems will be greatly
diminished. This is a good reason to purchase either the
9" (L6000T) or 12" (L7000T) wide models of the
laminators. Other laminators will also work, but we make no claims as to how
well others will work. There are many laminators available that are not up
to the job. The laminators we sell have a five year warranty, adjustable
temperature, and a thermometer. As a starting point we suggest you set the
laminator temperature at 250°F.
If your printer is not printing in the correct place on the Teslin card sheets, check you page size and orientation (portrait or landscape) settings. We suggest that you use plain paper of the same size as the Teslin sheets you are using, to make all printer adjustments. This will minimize wasting Teslin sheets. Once you have printed on the plain paper sheets, hold them up to the Teslin card sheets to check positioning.
We make no claims as to the results you will get with your
printer and laminator combination. We know that the laminators we sell and
the Epson printers that utilize DuraBrite or UltraChrome inks will give excellent results,
producing professional ID Badges that are durable when used with our
laminates. We are not able to provide support for any printer, laminator, or
supply not purchased from us.
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Teslin® is a registered trademark of PPG
Industries, Inc.
EspressoID® is a registered trademark.
