Magnetic Stripe Cards
Magnetic Stripes are generally used with Access control, Time and attendance, loyalty system. The cards magnetic stripe can be written in line and printed by ID card printers fitted with magnetic encoder module.
Magstripe cards follow the international standard ISO 7811.The stripe contains three tracks which can be recorded like this:
Track 1: 79 alphanumeric characters (density: 210 bpi)
Track 2: 40 numeric characters (density: 75 bpi)
Track 3: 107 numeric characters (density: 210 bpi)
How does it work?
The stripe on the back of a credit card is a magnetic stripe, often called a magstripe. The magstripe is made up of tiny iron-based magnetic particles in a plastic-like film. Each particle is really a very tiny bar magnet about 20 millionths of an inch long. The magstripe can be "written" because the tiny bar magnets can be magnetized in either a north or south pole direction. Magstripes come in two varieties: HiCo (high coercivity) and LoCo (low coercivity). LoCo stripes require a lesser amount of energy to record, thus making them cheaper to produce, but easier to erase by strong magnetic fields. HiCo stripes, however, are much harder to erase and more resistant. The two magnetic stripes are also optically different: LoCo stripes appear to be brownish, HiCo cards black. It is also possible, though, to colour the magnetic stripe. You would like the stripe to fit to your design? Choose among the colours silver, red, blue, green and yellow.