New printer from Evolis brings your cards to life

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: New printer from Evolis brings your cards to life.

Evolis, a leading European provider of systems for plastic card personalization, has launched the new Tattoo RW, a compact and powerful monochrome printer that is claimed to be able to erase and print up to 500 times the same card.

The new Tattoo RW is designed to print on rewritable cards. Such cards contain a thermochromic material that makes data (text, graphics and barcodes) visible or vanish, depending on the temperature to which the card is exposed. This process can be rolled back and the same card can be erased and reprinted up to 500 times:  a rewritable card is a medium that can be reused and updated multiple times. This dynamic communication tool is also cost-effective since the printer uses no ribbon.

A solution fit for a host of applications

Tattoo RW is a sound solution to print badges with information that is updated on a regular basis. It therefore supports multiple applications such as loyalty programs, visitor management, transit passes, library and student IDs, management of temporary employees and much more.

For loyalty programs, the rewritable card has become a popular tool in establishing a strong link between consumers and the retailer. With Tattoo RW, an individual immediately obtains a card that is loaded with personal details: name, targeted promotional message or special offer, and the number of loyalty points earned. The retailer acquires more selling power when providing customers with this new service, with which the customer is encouraged to return and discover which rewards and benefits the rewritable loyalty card has to offer.

Tattoo RW eases visitor management and access control in any corporate premises or during mass events (trade fairs, congresses, open days, etc). The card facilitates straightforward visitor management, and increases safety with the delivery of a badge that grants the right of access to authorized visitors only. Such a solution turns out to be very cost-effective since a single badge can be reused for a large number of visitors.

Tattoo RW: creative technologies, sleek design, and a compact form

Tattoo RW provides cards with additional encoding features such as ISO-compliant magnetic encoding and RFID. These recent additions are scaled to meet the requirements of loyalty and access control applications. Tattoo RW also comes with an Ethernet port to network it easily, which is a boon to the users in case of a large-scale distributed deployment.

With its compact form factor and sleek design, Tattoo RW finds its place in any environment: an office desk, a reception counter, or the customer service desk at a point of sale. Users can choose to insert cards automatically through the card feeder, or manually through the printer's front feed. The hermetically encapsulated card feeder can host up to 100 cards that are kept totally dust-free.

Evolis offers two types of rewritable cards: a PVC card that can be printed in the two colors that make it possible to display barcodes: blue or black.