Card inlays refer to the inter­nal com­po­nents of a plas­tic card that are embed­ded with­in its struc­ture, often con­sist­ing of a com­bi­na­tion of mate­ri­als and tech­nolo­gies that enhance the card’s func­tion­al­i­ty and dura­bil­i­ty. Card inlays are crit­i­cal for all types of cards, includ­ing cred­it cards, ID cards and RFID cards.

There are two main inlays for plas­tic cards, one is the PVC inlay and the oth­er is the RFID inlay.
 

PVC inlay / PVC core layer

PVC inlay, also known as a core lay­er. The core lay­er is the mate­r­i­al that sits between the out­er lay­ers of the plas­tic card. It serves as the base of the card, pro­vid­ing struc­tur­al integri­ty and hous­ing any embed­ded tech­nol­o­gy, such as mag­net­ic stripes, RFID chips or smart card com­po­nents. PVC is the most com­mon­ly used mate­r­i­al for the core lay­er of plas­tic cards. It is known for its flex­i­bil­i­ty, dura­bil­i­ty and cost-effec­tive­ness. It pro­vides a strong base for the card and can with­stand dai­ly wear and tear.

RFID inlay

The RFID (Radio Fre­quen­cy Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion) inlay is a key com­po­nent to real­ize the func­tion of RFID tech­nol­o­gy. This lay­er hous­es the RFID chip and anten­na, allow­ing the card to com­mu­ni­cate wire­less­ly with the RFID read­er. The RFID inlay refers to the embed­ded com­po­nents with­in the plas­tic card that enable RFID com­mu­ni­ca­tion. The RFID inlay typ­i­cal­ly con­sists of

RFID chip: A small microchip that stores data, such as a unique iden­ti­fi­er or oth­er relat­ed infor­ma­tion. This chip is respon­si­ble for pro­cess­ing the data and trans­mit­ting it to the RFID read­er.

Anten­na: The con­duc­tive ele­ment that enables the card to send and receive radio sig­nals. The anten­na is designed to oper­ate at a spe­cif­ic fre­quen­cy to com­mu­ni­cate effec­tive­ly with the RFID read­er.

Sub­strate: The mate­r­i­al that hous­es the RFID chip and anten­na and pro­vides struc­tur­al sup­port and pro­tec­tion. The sub­strate is usu­al­ly made of mate­ri­als such as PVC.

RFID inlays are wide­ly used in access con­trol, pay­ment sys­tems, iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, event man­age­ment, etc.

Despite the fin­ished PVC cards, you can also pur­chase semi-fin­ished card mate­r­i­al such as PVC core lay­ers and RFID inlays sep­a­rate­ly from HYD­card and pro­duce cards your­self.