Active card cooling in a card processing machine
Methods and systems of actively cooling a card while the card is within a card processing machine are described. One or more cooling stations are provided within the card processing machine to actively cool the card prior to performing a processing operation, during a processing operation, and/or after a processing operation on the card in order to reduce a temperature of the surface of the card.
1. A method of processing a plastic card, comprising:
inputting the plastic card into a card processing machine having a card processing station;
performing a processing operation on the plastic card in the card processing station;
prior to performing the processing operation, during the processing operation, or after the processing operation, actively cooling a surface of the plastic card within the card processing machine in order to reduce a temperature of the surface of the plastic card;
wherein the card processing station comprises a retransfer printing mechanism that is configured to perform a retransfer printing operation on the surface of the plastic card, and actively cooling the surface occurs prior to performing the retransfer printing operation on the surface.
2. A method of processing a plastic card, comprising:
inputting the plastic card into a card processing machine having a card processing station;
performing a processing operation on the plastic card in the card processing station;
prior to performing the processing operation, during the processing operation, or after the processing operation, actively cooling a surface of the plastic card within the card processing machine in order to reduce a temperature of the surface of the plastic card;
wherein actively cooling the surface occurs while the plastic card is stationary waiting for a processing operation on another plastic card to be completed.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein actively cooling the surface occurs a user-defined predetermined time prior to performing the retransfer printing operation on the surface.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein actively cooling the surface occurs after performing a first retransfer printing operation on the surface and prior to performing a second retransfer printing operation on the surface.
5. A method of processing a plastic card, comprising:
inputting the plastic card into a card processing machine having a first card processing station, a second card processing station and a cooling station that performs active cooling;
performing a first processing operation on the plastic card in the first card processing station;
actively cooling the card in the cooling station; and
performing a second processing operation on the plastic card in the second card processing station;
wherein the first card processing station is one of a magnetic stripe programming station and a contact or contactless integrated circuit chip programming station.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the second card processing station is a retransfer printing station.