Zebra Technologies Unveils ZXP Series 3 Printer

Zebra Technologies, a provider of specialty printing and automatic identification solutions, announced the ZXP Series 3 card printer, which the company said will be available in the first quarter of 2011. The ZXP Series 3 extends Zebra's Card printer product line with a model that is designed to combine performance and affordability in a small footprint suited for most card printing and encoding applications.

The ZXP Series 3 is a full-featured, high-speed card printer ready to be integrated into standard ID card and access control applications. The company said its compact size makes it ideal for deployment in educational institutions and retail outlets for ID card, gift card, loyalty card or membership card applications. The ZXP Series 3, with its added security and encoding features, also offers a printing platform for the secure issuance of financial cards. The ZXP Series 3 includes a host of features, including the ability to print direct-to-card full-color or monochrome, single- or dual-sided cards.

Other features include PC/SC and EMV standards-compliant smart card encoding over USB and Ethernet connections, EMV-certified encoding, increased security features such as a mechanical lock to secure the top cover, card input hopper, obscured input and output hoppers, and PC/SC encoding over Ethernet for financial instant issuance card printing, Load-N-Go ribbons specially formulated for better print quality at faster speed and green-aware ribbon cassettes built with environmentally friendly plastics.

The ZXP Release 3 ZRaster host-based image processing technology takes advantage of the increased processing power of today's PCs to optimize image and print quality while increasing overall print speed throughput and printing ribbons that employ an improved chemical formulation specifically designed for fast high-quality image printing.

"Customers are looking to deploy card printers in a variety of applications, but they expect these printers to print faster and more realistic images," said Richard Powlesland, EMEA product manager at Zebra Technologies. "With the ZXP Series 3 we are introducing a printer that delivers on the promise of high-speed printing, brilliant image quality, enterprise networking features and full encoding capabilities-all in a compact, easy-to-use package."

Effective from the launch of the product in 2011, the ZXP Series 3 will be included in the Zebra QuikCard ID Solution bundle. The QuikCard ID Solution bundle includes features needed to create and print ID and other types of cards, including a ZXP Series 3 printer, CardStudio card design software, a Web camera, ribbon and blank cards.

In October, the company rolled out a printer that addresses global industry requirements for on-demand printing of bank credit, debit and ATM cards. Zebra's ZXP Series 8 Secure Issuance printer, in conjunction with application providers, is capable of printing activated debit, credit and ATM cards on flat, non-embossed cards, which can be done directly onsite at the financial institution.

The ZXP Instant Issuance printer also allows banks, retailers and higher education institutions to print cards on demand at remote locations. Leveraging the technology of the ZXP Series 8 retransfer card printer, the Secure Issuance printer features a locking mechanism to protect the input, reject and media inside the printer from unauthorized access, obstructed view of input and output hoppers, and includes encryption to protect sensitive cardholder data during network transmission.