DTC1500XE Printers
Have Questions about Fargo DTC1500XE Card Printers? We Have Answers!
What Are The Key Features And Benefits Of The Special Edition Fargo DTC1500XE Badge Printer?
The unique Fargo DTC1500 XE printer model operates exactly as a standard Fargo DTC1500 plastic card printer. This direct-to-card printer is a professional-level ID card issuance solution ideal for organizations that require fast, high-volume printing at an affordable price. Features that enable powerful printing and advanced security come with modular flexibility. Enjoy the benefit to scale to your organization's needs through simple in-field upgrades that support growth in card volume, credential criteria and higher security. DTC1500XE printers are ideal for printing corporate IDs, student IDs, driver’s licenses, healthcare worker badges, membership and loyalty cards, government and military credentials, and more. HID Fargo provides a three-year manufacturer’s warranty on the DTC1500 XE printer and printhead, so you can be confident your investment is protected.
DTC1500 XE ID card printers offer a number of user-friendly features, including
- Single-sided printing or dual-sided printing (field upgradeable via included dual-sided flipper)
- High-capacity supplies for printing large quantities in one or multiple runs
- Color-changing buttons that offer visual status updates during operation
- Dye-sublimation printing for vivid imagery and thermal resin printing for sharp barcodes and text
- Thermal-resin erase and rewrite capabilities for reusing temporary ID cards and visitor badges
- Comes standard with both USB and Ethernet connectivity
- Encoding options (which can be added at any time) for writing electronic data to your cards
- Three-year manufacturer warranty on printer & printhead
Should I Choose The Single-Sided DTC1500XE or The Dual-Sided DTC1500XE?
Consider the type and quantity of information that you will be printing on your cards. If you will be printing minimal information such as a company name, cardholder name and a photo on your cards, a single-sided DTC1500XE should suffice. If you will be printing more robust information to your cards, especially if you’ll be encoding them with magnetic stripes or barcodes, you’ll be more satisfied with a dual-sided DTC1500 XE.
Note: Your special edition DTC1500 automatically comes with a flipper that can be field-activated to enable dual-sided printing.
Dual-sided printers allow you to print to both sides of the card in a single pass and keep your cards legible and uncluttered by printing essential information that needs to be seen to the card front, with secondary or additional information printed on the back.
Customers often ask whether they can use their special edition DTC1500 printer to print dual-sided cards with the assumption that this will reduce overall cost. Technically, it’s possible to use a single-sided printer for dual-sided printing by manually re-loading printed cards for a second pass, however, this is not recommended for several, very important reasons. Not only is this method time-consuming and inefficient, taking three to four times as long as a dual-sided printer, it also exposes your printer's printhead to oil from your fingertips, dust and other debris that can cause printhead damage. Printhead damage to single-sided printers caused by attempted dual-side printing usually voids your printer warranty, leaving you to absorb the cost of expensive printer part replacement.
I Need To Store And/Or Access Data On My Cards. What Are My Encoding Options With The DTC1500XE Printer?
Barcode Printing
With barcodes, the cardholder data is not stored within the physical barcode, but rather electronically in a computer. To print barcodes to your cards, you do not need an encoding Fargo DTC1500XE printer or special software with encoding capabilities. Simply make sure that your printer ribbon has a black resin panel to create crisp, easy-to-scan barcodes.
Requirements: All Fargo DTC1500XE printers are capable of adding a 1-D or 2-D barcode to a plastic card. However, reading the barcode requires a barcode scanner connected to the computer that contains the barcode's data.
Magnetic Stripe Encoding
While barcode information is stored to a computer, magnetic stripe information is stored within the magnetic stripe of the physical card. When used for access control, for example, each individual card contains the data required to unlock preprogrammed doors. Simply swiping the encoded card will activate the door to give validated users access.
There are two types of magnetic stripe cards:
High Coercivity (HiCo) magnetic stripe cards are resistant to damage from magnets and magnetic fields, are harder to erase, and are recommended for frequent use and extended duration applications. HiCo stripes are most often used for access control, time and attendance, and gift cards.
Low Coercivity (LoCo) magnetic stripe cards require a lower amount of energy to record than HiCo stripe cards, making them easier to erase. LoCo stripes can be damaged by brief contact with a magnetic field, and so LoCo stripe cards are typically reserved for limited use and temporary card applications, such as hotel room keys.
Requirements: In order to use magnetic stripe cards, you will need a magnetic stripe encoding Fargo DTC1500 XE printer and mid-level or fully-featured ID software.
Smart Card and Proximity Card Encoding
Like magnetic stripe cards, smart card data is stored within the physical smart card components. Unlike magnetic stripe cards, however, smart cards can be reconfigured to add, erase, or edit hosted data. They are also capable of holding up to 100 times more data than a magnetic stripe. There are two kinds of smart card: contact and contactless.
Contact smart cards have integrated chips and must come into direct contact with the card reader in order to be read.
Contactless smart cards have chips and antennae that allow them to be read as soon as they are within a specified distance to the card reader, eliminating the need for direct card-to-reader contact.
Note: Proximity cards are similar to contactless smart cards, but there are important differences. Proximity cards come pre-programmed and do not need to be encoded. While some printers can read/verify proximity card data, data on most* proximity cards cannot be added, altered, or erased.
Requirements: In order to use a contact or contactless smart card, you'll need a smart card encoding Fargo DTC1500XE printer and fully-featured ID software. When ordering your printer, be prepared to specify whether you require contact or contactless encoding.
*Some cards, such as iClass cards, include non-editable, pre-programmed proximity data and a smart chip for encoding your own data.