Plasticard-ZFT Selects HID® FARGO® ID Badge & Card Printers to Power Full- Service ID Card Production for Lufthansa
One of Plasticard-ZFT’s large-scale customers is the world-renowned aviation company, Lufthansa Group, that has utilized the company’s full-service ID cards for decades. To optimally meet Lufthansa’s high-quality standards and stringent security requirements, the company aimed to bring in the latest technologies to ramp up card security and increase the protection of personalized card data for all of Lufthansa’s 105,000+ employees worldwide.
HID’s security and product design team worked closely with Plasticard-ZFT and Lufthansa during the consulting and presales phase to thoroughly address all needs for implementing critical features within their new, custom-designed secure holographic overlaminate.
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Beyond increased security and card durability, key priorities of the project were to minimize the instance of misprints while simultaneously reducing energy consumption and waste during the card production process. Additionally, a cornerstone of Plasticard-ZFT’s philosophy is to work in partnership with its distinguished clients like Lufthansa — placing customer needs first and foremost. As such, a critical decision-making factor in selecting the right solution was to choose a like-minded supplier who could be relied upon to provide that same superior level of service and support.
“In our secure card personalization environment, it is important that we have the best possible machines and strong partners to support us and our customer needs,” said René Blankenhagel, Managing Director of Plasticard-ZFT GmbH & Co. KG. “Clearly, security, total cost of ownership and reliability — along with reducing waste and energy consumption — were key factors when considering the right company to work with.”
HID was selected as the preferred vendor based on their ability to provide a solution that would meet all aforementioned requirements while delivering the level of service and support that the project demanded.
Plasticard-ZFT receives personalization data twice a day and per their service-level agreement with Lufthansa, is responsible for same-day shipment of fully personalized IDs — equating to approximately 40,000 cards per year. To meet this demand, the company selected eight HID FARGO DTC5500LMX ID card printers, which offer dual-side printing and lamination standard on every unit. Moreover, the DTC5500LMX includes dual card hoppers and supports high-capacity, full-color ribbon and laminate consumables — reducing costs while maximizing productivity.
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The printers also leverage an innovative wasteless lamination technology — supporting the project’s sustainability initiatives by reducing consumables waste during the card production process. Another key component of the solution involves provisioning access control data and PKI certificates on each of the cards issued to ensure that Lufthansa staff receive fully functional and highly secure credentials. For this aspect of the project, HID OMNIKEY 5022 readers were selected for their ease of integration, speed and overall performance as compared to competitive offerings.
Due to the company’s high-security production environment — to which only internal, certified personnel have access — the ease with which printers could be set up and installed was critical. To facilitate this, HID provided an easy-to-follow user manual and instructional video — enabling an expedient, straightforward and smooth implementation.
Results
Plasticard-ZFT achieved all project goals, realizing immediate improvements in card security, durability and overall card production. Incorporating a mix of overt, covert and forensic elements into Lufthansa’s custom holographic overlaminate, elevated card security to whole new level. The holographic imagery was also registered, ensuring it will appear in the same position from card to card during card printing and lamination processes — and resulting in highly secure IDs that are virtually impossible to forge yet easy to verify. In addition, the HID PolyGuard™ LMX overlaminate base material into which custom security elements were integrated, proved highly durable, while also providing the largest patch coverage in the industry — safeguarding printed images and text, and extending card life.
