Thinking of Pre-Punching Your ID Cards? Don’t!
Pre-punching your ID cards might seem like a way to work smarter, but it’s not. Find out why it can damage your printer and about accessories that eliminate the need to punch your badges at all.
Now that so many of us are working onsite again, facilities are rethinking employee identification. Once a team becomes too large for employees to recognize one another, security professionals need to remind everyone to display their identity badge.
In today’s workplace, people no longer dress alike. So, it can be challenging to come up with a standard way for staff to display their badge. The most common way these days usually involves either a lanyard around the neck or a badge reel.
To accommodate these badge accessories, many facilities punch a slot into the ID card. Just remember that the correct time to do this is after the card is printed.
Now, we know it might seem more efficient to pre-punch all your cards in advance, especially if you have a bit of down time. Unfortunately, it’s not as clever a suggestion as it seems. Here’s why.
Pre-Punched Blank Cards Can Seriously Damage Your Printer
When you pre-punch a blank card, it makes the card’s surface uneven. The printhead in most card printers can’t handle that irregular card face very well. Using pre-punched blank cards can do some serious damage to your printer.
Pre-punched ID cards can also leave tiny slivers of plastic inside the printer mechanism. Those slivers shift around, and they can punch holes in the heat element of the printhead.
Trying to work with a damaged printhead will affect your print quality. Text and images will become distorted.
That’s not a good look for your facility. It also makes it harder for your team to spot a counterfeit ID badge.
In fact, a scammer might end up printing better badges than you! A faulty card printer can defeat the purpose of requiring staff to display their badges in the first place.
So, stick to slot punching your ID cards after they’re printed to maintain your quality standards and extend your card printer’s active life. Better yet, you might want to consider some accessories that eliminate the need to punch your badges at all.
Accessories Can Eliminate the Need to Punch Your Cards
We offer a range of badge holders, badge grippers and clamp grips. Badge holders are those transparent envelopes we’ve all used at conventions.
They can display ID cards either horizontally or vertically. They not only hold the badge in place, but they also protect it from the elements. That makes badge holders a great choice for outdoor workers.
Badge grippers and clamp clips attach to the badge using friction. They can hold the badge in place without needing to alter the card in any way.
Groove Can Help
As always, our customer service team at Groove IDentification Solutions can help you choose the best supplies to help you get your staff displaying their badges properly.
If you currently slot punch your ID cards, we’d love to hear about your experience or answer any questions you may have. We’d also appreciate any input our readers have on badge accessories like lanyards, reels, holders, grippers and clamp grips.
Please share your thoughts in the comments section below. By sharing information, we can all make our facilities safer.
