174 Zebra ZXP Series 8 Card Printer User’s Manual P1045430-002
B: Setting Custom Card Specifications
To compensate for interdependency issues, try adjusting the parameters in the following order:
Step 1. Start by correcting any partial transfer issues by using the procedure outlined in
Section B.4.2.
Step 2. Then attempt to improve warpage by using the procedure outlined in Section B.4.3.
Start with acceptable settings from Step 1. While adjusting parameters, ensure that the
transfer quality remains acceptable. Do not continue reducing temperatures or
increasing speeds if the transfer quality becomes unacceptable.
Additional considerations and information:
The thermal conductivity of the card fundamentally influences retransfer performance. Card
characteristics affecting retransfer include:
• Single-layer vs. multi-layer construction (homogeneous vs. composite materials) –
for homogeneous cards, warp is often lowest when equal energy is put into each side
of the card, while such is not usually true for non-homogeneous cards made of a mix
of metals and plastics due to the widely different thermal properties of the materials,
• Surface finish – glossy vs. matte,
• Whether the card has a magnetic stripe – more prone to warp, especially low-
coercivity (LoCo) cards identifiable by a brown stripe instead of the common high-
coercivity black stripe, and
• Whether the card is a smart card – often containing asymmetrically-distributed,
thermally conductive, dissimilar components which can make warp reduction
more challenging.
Even cards sold as ‘typical’ PVC may not all be similar in terms of retransfer behavior, given
their exact binders, fillers, pigmentations, and other materials ratios. While many competitive
retransfer printers tend to disavow PVC because it can be difficult to use in their retransfer
printers, a prime ZXP Series 8 advantage is the ability to successfully retransfer to economical
PVC cards.
