HID, a worldwide leader in trusted identity solutions, today introduced the HID® ELEMENT™ range of printing, coding, and engraving solutions, which is designed to transform industrial ID and financial card personalisation and issuance by combining high-volume, superior-quality UV inkjet printing and laser engraving onto a single, robust yet easy-to-manage desktop system.

The HID ELEMENT product solutions delivers optimal card personalization and accommodates projects that require high-resolution UV ink printing, laser engraving or both. It is purpose-built to meet the industrial speed and output requirements of large government ID card programs, financial institutions, enterprise corporations, and service bureaus; addressing the demand for greater print speed, higher resolution, larger card output and better cost-per-card economy.

Lee Wei Jin, Regional Director of Secure Issuance, Asia Pacific, HID global said: “From government entities to financial card issuers and service bureaus, customers around the world have unique card personalization and issuance requirements that in many cases, cannot be met by standard direct-to-card and retransfer printers — yet where large production machines may be too cost- or space-prohibitive. By bridging the gap between desktop printers and central issuance machines, HID ELEMENT pioneers a new approach for delivering a host of highly configurable card personalization options that address current and evolving customer challenges.”

Key benefits include of the HID ELEMENT Solutions include:

· Lower total cost of ownership —Printers deliver lower cost-per-image over standard, ribbon-based desktop Direct-to-Card (DTC™) or retransfer card printers and a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than feature-comparable central issuance systems.

· Unique card personalization options —Printers introduce new and more cost-effective approaches to card security and durability not available elsewhere, such as the ability to create colour tactile effects or apply focused overlay.

· Unprecedented modularity in a desktop —Solutions offer highly configurable functionality, scalable throughput and an array of encoding options to meet a broad range of high-volume ID and financial card personalization needs. It also offers the flexibility to purchase UV inkjet printing and laser engraving systems either together or as separate, stand-alone units to meet unique card program requirements.

· Ease of use —Solutions are as easy to use as standard DTC and retransfer desktop printers but with the modularity, power and throughput speed to rival central issuance — opening up a whole new world of possibilities for credential issuance at the desktop.