How to Avoid Punching Slots in Your Smart Cards
Punching slots in your smart cards make them easy to wear, but you risk damaging the antenna inside. Find out how you can avoid this risk and save staff time and effort.
So, you’ve decided to use smart cards for access control at your facility. You’ve also tried to be efficient by printing a photo ID onto the smart card. That way, you’ll combine access control and employee identification in one badge. It’s usually the right choice.
The next step is deciding how you want your staff to display their photo ID. Will they be using a lanyard to hold them in place, or maybe a clip? You may be think you’ll need a slot in each card so that staff can attach them to it.
That’s always worked in the past with low tech badges, but it gets a bit more involved with smart cards. They have a sophisticated, miniature radio antenna inside them. That’s what makes them touchless. When you start punching holes in them, you risk damaging the antenna and ruining the card.
You Risk Damaging the Antenna
It’s not that you can’t punch a slot in a smart card, but you have to be much more careful That can slow down the process of issuing cards to staff. Fortunately, there are better ways to fasten your smart cards to accessories.
Certain brands of smart cards come marked with the best place for the slot to go. That cuts back on the risk of damaging the antenna, but your team is still stuck with the job of manually punching every card. Most of us are short-staffed these days, and that’s not what you hired them to do.
You can also buy smart cards that come with pre-cut slots. It’s a solution, but you need to track down pre-cut smart cards that will work with your reader. Things start to get complicated all over again.
A better answer is to ask yourself why you want to attach the card to a clip in the first place. There are a couple of more effective ways for your staff to wear their photo ID cards.
The most common method is to equip staff with badge holders. Staff insert their cards into transparent plastic envelopes and then attach the badge holder to the clip instead of the card. Badge holders also protect the badge and make it easier for staff to hand the card to someone for verification.
There is a wide variety of badge holder styles on the market. They can be rigid or flexible, horizontal or vertical. Some of them come with a Ziploc to keep out dirt and moisture for staff who work outdoors. They can even hold and organize multiple cards.
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Grippers Can Be More Reliable than Clips
The other alternative to punching slots in smart cards is called a badge gripper. It holds the badge in place between two pincers with silicone blades. It’s plastic, and it comes with a pre-cut slot for the clip. Grippers are firm and tight. They can be a more reliable solution than clips, your cards can stay intact, and your staff aren’t spending time punching slots.
You can also custom print a logo or company slogan on the plastic body of a badge gripper. Customization can help with branding in retail environments, give staff who visit customers credibility or build team spirit.
Our Groove support team is always available to help you find alternatives to slot punching your badges. They’d be pleased to discuss your current badge and accessory combination and recommend changes.
We can work with you to develop the right accessory choices to prevent smart card damage and save time and effort. We’re happy to discuss the range of product options and help you select the one that’s right for your facility.
Maybe you’ve already found a way to stop punching slots in smart cards. If so, we’d love to hear about your new process. We’d also be pleased to answer any questions you may have.
