Method and Device for forming an ink-receptive card substrate

1. A method of forming an ink-receptive card substrate comprising steps of:

a) providing an ink-receptive material having a backing layer and an ink-receptive coating in contact with a surface of the backing layer;

b) providing a card member;

c) jetting ink with an ink jet printhead on the ink-receptive coating to form an image;

d) laminating the ink-receptive material to a surface of the card member with a laminator, wherein the ink-receptive coating is bonded to and completely covers the surface of the card member; and

e) removing the backing layer from the ink-receptive coating with a separator.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ink-receptive material overhangs edges of the card member during the laminating step d).

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the removing step e) further includes removing a portion of the ink-receptive coating that is not laminated to the surface of the card member.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ink-receptive material is in the form of an individual ink-receptive sheet.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ink-receptive material is in the form of an ink-receptive film.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the ink-receptive material is supported on a supply roll.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the card member is sized in accordance with standardized identification card substrates.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the card member is in the form of a sheet of card substrate material.

9. The method of claim 8 including f) cutting an individual card substrate from the sheet of card substrate material.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the card member includes an embedded chip having exposed contacts.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the ink-receptive coating does not bond to the exposed contacts during the laminating step d).

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ink-receptive coating comprises a porous material.

13. A device for forming card substrates comprising:

a supply of ink-receptive material having a backing layer and an ink-receptive coating on the surface of the backing layer;

a supply of card substrates;

an ink jet printhead configured to print an image on the ink-receptive coating;

a laminator configured to laminate the ink-receptive material to a surface of each card substrate, wherein the ink-receptive coating is bonded to and completely covers the surface of the card member; and

a separator configured to remove the backing layer from the ink-receptive coating.

14. The device of claim 13 , wherein the ink-receptive coating comprises a porous material.

15. The device of claim 14 , wherein the porous material of the ink-receptive coating comprises a pore radius of approximately 5 to 20 nanometers.

16. The device of claim 13 , wherein the separator is further configured to remove a portion of the ink-receptive coating that is not laminated to the surface of the card substrate.

17. A method of forming an identification card comprising the steps of:

a) providing an ink-receptive material that includes a backing layer and a porous ink-receptive coating on a surface of the backing layer;

b) providing a card member;

c) printing an image on the ink-receptive coating with an ink jet printhead;

c) laminating the ink-receptive coating to a surface of the card member with a laminator, wherein the surface of the card member is completely laminated with the ink-receptive coating; and

d) removing the backing layer from the ink-receptive coating and removing a portion of the ink-receptive coating that is not laminated to the card member with a separator.

18. The method of claim 17 , further wherein the printing step c) comprises printing on the ink-receptive coating using a jetted ink.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the ink-receptive coating and backing layer of the ink-receptive material overhangs edges of the card member during the laminating step c).