When customers choose a security lamination solution for ID cards, they often ask a question: What percentage of a standard card surface (85.60 × 53.98 mm) can be covered by the optical patch overlay?
Many people’s first reaction is very direct: If you want to cover a larger area, can’t you just make the patch bigger? It sounds very simple, but it is not so easy to put it into actual mass production.
Today, we would like to share some practical experience in some aspects. Such as how to control the coverage area, and why it is not enough to increase the size of the patch overlay if we want to increase the coverage.
Higher patch coverage means more challenging
Let’s take the standard ID card as an example. The card size is about 85.60 × 53.98 mm. What we do is try to cover more of the surface of the card when doing lamination. Because more coverage means more protection, less possible to be duplicated.
But there is another question. We do the lamination by using a laminator. But in the lamination process, small deviation is can be avoided due to machine operation, material characteristics, die-cutting accuracy, and environmental conditions.
When the machine operates, the roll material may move left or right, but it is still within the controlled margin of error. However, if the ID card patch overlay is too big, a small deviation may cause the patch to extend beyond the card edge.
Here we have to talk about the balance, the balance between the more coverage and more accurate positioning. For surface-applied patches, especially used for secure ID documents, precise positioning is extremely important.
The patch overlay manufacturer needs to test, they need to consider three aspects at the same time, including coverage, positioning accuracy, and the stability of optical performance. Make sure the visual and physical effect of finished ID cards.
How IMAGE TECH Achieves 94% Patch Overlay Coverage
At IMAGE TECH, our pre-cut patch overlays can cover 94% area when apply it to standard ID cards. Our patch can do 83.5*52.5mm.
And one roll of material can laminate approximately 500 cards, helping customers maintain efficient production while providing a larger protected surface area.
So why does coverage matter?
It is not only about making the card look like a whole one, look more good in visual appearance. A higher patch overlay coverage means better coverage of important information on the card.
Higher Coverage Requires Real Manufacturing Experience
In secure ID card production, every small improvement comes from experience and process capability.
Making a larger patch overlay is not the most difficult part. The real challenge is achieving higher coverage without exceeding the card edge, while still maintaining stable performance in large-scale production. That is where precision manufacturing makes the difference.
If you are looking for a reliable optical patch overlay supplier, welcome to contact us. We are happy to share more practical experience from our real production applications.
