We've all been there: the frustrating moment at checkout when your card decides to play dead, leaving you scrambling for another way to pay for that mountain of nachos. For credit and debit card manufacturers, these glitches are the ultimate nightmare.
Sure, factors like rewards programs and bank loyalty play a big role in choosing a credit card or bank card. But when it comes down to the wire, basic functionality matters. Card manufacturers understand their responsibility – ensuring your card is there for you when you need it most, from that morning latte to that large business purchase.
A faulty card can be more than just an inconvenience. Delamination, where the card's layers separate, can create sharp edges that are unpleasant to handle and potentially dangerous. These defects can damage the reputations of the card manufacturer and the company issuing the card.
So, how can card manufacturers stay ahead of the curve? Here's where process control innovations come in. By implementing cutting-edge technologies, manufacturers can ensure consistent quality and reduce the risk of these frustrating (and potentially nacho-less) situations.
This blog post will explore the exciting world of process control advancements in card manufacturing, exploring how these innovations keep your cards healthy and your transactions smooth.
Beyond User Experience: The Efficiency Challenge
For card manufacturers, creating a smooth user experience is not enough—ensuring an efficient, waste-free production process is equally crucial. This requires innovative technology and data collection methods that minimize scrap, standardize procedures, and ultimately save time and money.
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically reshaped purchasing habits. Cash usage has plummeted, while financial concerns make credit cards a double-edged sword. On one hand, they offer access to funds when cash flow might be tight. On the other hand, taking on debt feels riskier in today's economic climate.
Touchless payment options, from online purchases to waving your phone at the checkout with Apple Pay, have surged in popularity as people minimize unnecessary outings. While card use has seen a slight uptick, the long-term trend remains uncertain. This unpredictable landscape highlights the importance of efficient processes for card manufacturers. By prioritizing production efficiency, they can ensure reliable, functional cards that people will continue to use, regardless of future payment trends.
A Brief History of Credit Cards and Card Manufacturers’ Dilemmas
A credit or debit card appears on its face to be a simple enough piece of plastic, but, much like the paper money it’s an alternative to, these cards are technological marvels that embody decades of design enhancements to prevent forgery, protect people’s private information and make buying things with them easier.
Cards as a means of paying for something on credit wasn’t a new idea by the 1950s but with the advent of the Diners Club Card and American Express, paying for things like entertainment, dining out, and travel without having the money upfront spawned all modern incarnations of this kind of transaction. Technological advances in cards were born out of a necessity to make credit card authorizations speedier and safer.
The magnetic strip on the back of cards that sent information to banks over phone lines was a game changer. However, countries with less than stellar phone line infrastructure were vulnerable to massive fraud, which led to the invention of the EMV chip that is now ubiquitous and computing power comparable to that of the tech used to send the Apollo 11 space shuttle to the moon.
That said, cards are now made of multiple materials, embedded safety mechanisms, and highly sophisticated technology, making each card more expensive and more complicated to produce than ever.
To learn more about how EMV chips are produced before they are inserted into cards, read our recent article on semiconductors and the crucial role adhesion concerns play in making these tiny computers.
Since cards are no longer just rectangular pieces of single-layer plastic, the materials used have to undergo a series of treatments, cleaning, and processing to ensure that they withstand years of constant use and abuse crammed into wallets and handbags.
One of the biggest struggles for card manufacturers has been adequately cleaning the metal components of cards so they create a strong bond with the polymer layers. Overcoming this issue has included instituting washing processes that hadn’t previously been employed.
Cleaning metal is very different from cleaning polymers in many ways. Metal surfaces are generally more innately reactive than polymer surfaces and can build up layers of oils, residues, and oxides that make adhesion difficult. Cutting through these substances and creating a surface that is ready for bonding requires industrial washing processes using cleaning chemicals and thorough rinsing.
With polymers, the process often includes an activation step utilizing plasma and/or corona treatment to break molecular bonds on the surface of the material. These broken bonds become active sites on the polymer's surface that are eager to create new bonds with molecules introduced to them.
If the treatment or cleaning is insufficient, the interface between the treated and cleaned surfaces and the adhesive or laminate placed on them is highly susceptible to adhesion failure. Controlling these processes and optimizing the equipment used is the best offense manufacturers can employ to create reliable, consistently functional cards. Residues and other invisible contaminants left on the surface weaken the bonds and make cards vulnerable to delamination and malfunctioning.
Reducing Operational Costs Through Process Monitoring
When a card manufacturing process is equipped with systems that reveal quantifiable differences between “good” and “bad” parts, this allows for thoughtful adjustments to be made that reduce “bad” parts and develop a process more capable of outputting only “good” parts. When this logic is applied to the surface quality of materials that go through cleaning and treatment processes, then one of the most overlooked aspects of manufacturing is no longer left up to chance.
The cleanliness of a surface depends on process steps that occur even before the materials are in the final assembly facility. Plastic blanks, metal sheets, and microchip components are often supplied by vendors, and manufacturers need clear, data-driven ways to communicate the changes their suppliers make.
Traditionally, card manufacturers have relied on subjective and imprecise information gained through surface quality evaluations like dyne ink and water break tests. These tests are prone to inaccuracies and have done little to nothing to prevent failures due to inefficiencies in cleaning and treatment processes.
A key aspect of creating a seamless surface quality process has been the ability to automate evaluations and/or use mobile devices that can easily identify changes in surface quality at each process step. Being able to say with confidence, after extrusion, the surface quality is this number, then after treatment, the surface quality is this number, and then before laminating or printing, the surface quality at this number makes a direct connection between the beginning and the end of the process. Thinking holistically about the process and understanding the interconnectedness means manufacturers can collect data that reveals where inefficiencies exist and precisely what parameters need to be optimized.
In an interview with ICMA (International Card Manufacturing Association), Peter M. Krauss, president and CEO of Arroweye, discussed how this kind of thinking changed his company’s perspective on the “war on waste.”
“We took a step back and evaluated our entire workflow and focused on using technology to capture data,” Krauss said. “The minutes and hours that we can save in our process—that translates to gains in efficiencies and profits. If a card manufacturer has a high scrap rate of 20-30% and they don’t know how that scrap is happening, that is an instance where the company should use technology to track and report on that data to make better business decisions,”
Waste is a major issue for card manufacturers, and it can occur at any point in the production process as a consequence of over-processing, punching skeletons, printing defects, or lamination imperfections. Handling waste can often be a part of a larger push towards sustainable manufacturing practices that consumers increasingly demand. Reducing scrap makes good business sense from every angle.
Material Complexity Adding to Manufacturing Complexity
As a consumer item, credit and debit cards are statement pieces that convey something about the person it was issued. Premium credit cards have long been used to differentiate those that possess these elite status cards with more intricate designs, gold and silver flourishes, and heightened security features.
There has also been a continual drive to push the boundaries of artfulness in card design, making them another indicator of the personality and interests of the holder.
Dane Whitehurst, creative director of Burgopak Ltd., told ICMA, “A plastic card isn’t just a bank card or a gift card, it is a ‘membership card. In the absence of a handshake, the way it is presented through its packaging fundamentally defines the first, ‘Hello, welcome to the club.”
Innovation is at the heart of this industry, from treating the cards as little blank canvases to displaying artwork or improving the security of digital information stored on the cards. This innovation comes with novel materials and processes that must be monitored and understood to predict their impact on the adhesion process. Adding in magnetic material, recycled plastics, additional metals, inks, and dyes can alter the chemistry of the surface and need to be controlled to maintain the consistent performance of all cards.
Objectively defining successful processes that scale makes introducing material changes easier if manufacturers can quickly collect precise data on their impact. This will reduce the costs of revamping a process or dealing with the unforeseen deleterious effects of materials not bonding after the fact.
Guarding manufacturing processes with predictive maintenance systems removes the need for more reactive preventive maintenance. You can effectively ensure that the highest quality products possible will come out of production when you can draw a direct line from development to the final assembly through detailed data communication between all critical control points where surface quality has an opportunity to change. Mapping out the entire adhesion process with an easily trackable metric reveals vulnerabilities and makes it possible to do something about those vulnerabilities.
To learn more about how to build an adhesion process that will increase throughput, reduce costs, and provide actionable data, download our eBook, "The Future of Manufacturing: A Guide to Intelligent Adhesive Bonding Technologies & Methodologies."
