Lamination or over-laminates or "over-Lam" are catch terms that have different meanings and ID card functionality. Over-laminates can be used to protect the ID card surface from scratching, protection from the elements (Ultra Violet Rays), added ID card durability (increased Flex-Cycles), makes the ID card more difficult to alter (tamper-proof), provides barcode or magnetic stripe card reader swipe protection, the over-laminates also provides added security features.

Over-laminates should not be confused with the (O) overlay panel found in Dye-Sublimation ribbons as the over-laminates require a separate heat roller process to adhere the over-laminate to the ID cards’ surface.

TIP Laminate problems

A little technical service tip for you; if your ID Cards come off your ID card printer looking like a potato chip your over-laminate temperature setting is too high.

Most card printer manufactures have developed a line of ID card printers that come standard with over-laminate capabilities; some ID card printers have over-laminate capabilities as an add-on feature and a few ID card printer manufactures offer stand alone over-laminate stations. The point is that if you start producing ID cards and decide you need to upgrade to over-laminates it can be easily accomplished. Our service center up-grades printers all the time to incorporate over-laminate capabilities within an existing ID card printer.

The types of over-laminates available is considerable and will vary form ID card manufacturer to ID card manufacturer, in general you have:

• Clear over-laminates are a thin film placed over the ID card which adds additional protection.
• Thermal transfer over-laminates (usually clear) are less robust then the clear over-laminates the thermal transfer over-laminates offer additional ID card protection at a moderate price.
• Holographic over-laminates are clear over-laminates with holographic imaged embedded into the over-laminates film. Most ID card printer manufactures offer a variety of standard holographic images. The concept behind these generic holographs is to make the ID card tamper proof, they certainly do add to the overall ID cards physical appearance and they are a lower cost solution to custom holographic over-laminates.
• Custom holographic over-laminates are as they imply customized to your specific logo or text. These customized holographic over-laminates provide advanced security, protecting you from fraudulent ID card issuance and ID card tampering. In the fraudulent ID card portion of our web site we will further discuss custom holographic over-laminates as they relate to fraudulent ID cards.

Custom holographic over-laminates are a custom ordering process, there are set-up fee’s involved, a proofing process, minimum order roll quantities. The custom holographic over-laminates are assigned a unique part number and cannot be re-ordered by anyone other then you. Delivery times can be fairly long for these over-laminates

• High security custom over-laminates are offered by a few of the ID card manufactures and basically provide additional security features beyond the custom holographic over-laminates. Like the custom holographic over-laminates they have associated set-up fee’s and distribution control. See our fraudulent ID card web page for additional information.

You will find the ID card printer manufacturers who offer over-laminate capabilities have for the most part standardized on two over-laminate thicknesses. You generally have over-laminates .6 mil to 1.0 mil in thickness and they a readily available for the CR80 card stocks. A few manufactures offer over-laminates for over-sized cards. The thickness’ of your over-laminates really depends on the usage of the card and your budget. One additional piece of information on over-laminate thicknesses for ID card printer manufactures who offers a thermal transfer over-laminate will usually have a thickness of .25 mil.