How a card printer works - printing and laminating a card on a Magicard Tango printer

This is a short video that just gives an overview of how a card printer actually functions. The printer is a Magicard Tango +L. This is a direct to card printer and a card laminator all-in-one.

For each pass that you can see (printing yellow, magenta, etc), the printer is actually using a thermal print head to heat a ribbon impregnated with dye, which transfers the image to the plastic card. This is why you see the card go back and forth - it has to move it back to line it up for the next layer.

The lamination step applies a clear plastic film over top of the printing. This helps to make it more durable. This film is also where a hologram would be applied (I opted for the plain film because even the generic holograms are considerably more pricey).

This specific printer came from eBay on a "for parts only" listing, and it definitely had some issues. After replacing some parts and cleaning it up, it prints fairly well! This video was taken after the replacements - thus why the machine is partially disassembled.

Sorry for the fan noise - my work area has a couple of servers.

Видео How a card printer works - printing and laminating a card on a Magicard Tango printer канала Chris Syria