KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 8): The HID FARGO INK 1000 inkjet printer can help businesses and organisations, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), save up to 30%-50% on supplies (ribbon, ink).

In an email interview, HID Global Secure Issuance APAC regional business director Lee Wei Jin said that for example, to print 400-800 cards with HID FARGO INK 1000, the cost is 24 sen whereas for direct-to-card (DTC) desktop solutions it is 30 sen.

However, printing 1200-1300 cards with HID FARGO INK 1000, the cost is only 15 sen whereas for DTC it is still 30 sen.

Lee elaborated that HID FARGO INK 1000 does not use dye sublimation technology.

"Instead it uses highly specialised inkjet printing technology and does not require a specialised card.

"Moreover, HID FARGO INK 1000 provides higher resolution printing than any existing desktop card printer. It prints up to 600X1200 dpi resolution while most of the existing technologies can print only at 300 dpi resolution," he said.

Lee further said that by using thermal inkjet technology with drop on demands method, businesses and organisations will experience cost savings and benefits, which include:
• Less physical waste as there will be no used ribbon panel wastage.
• More secure than ribbon-based printing from which sensitive data can be derived.
• Potentially more cost effective and/or potentially lower cost-per-card because a single ink cartridge may yield significantly more cards at a fraction of the cost (depending on the card design).

He said in comparison, traditional ribbon-based printing requires the user to run through an entire set of ribbon panels even if the card design does not utilise all panels.

Both HID Element & HID FARGO INK 1000 were officially launched globally on Sept 29, 2020 through virtual platforms.

"These new products are developed with innovative technology, prioritising cost efficiency and document security to provide our users high quality output.

"We received many inquiries and substantial pre-orders from our partners in Malaysia and globally. In fact, some of the system integrator partners have been in very close discussions with our team for some potential projects," said Lee.

He said apart from the private sector, the Malaysian government also uses the equipment for many identities related to ID card issuance projects since early 2000.

"Our system integrators have been providing high quality services and support.

"In many of these projects, our customers continuously use our machines for many years and grow together with us by migrating to newer platform that we newly developed," he said.

On HID Global's market share in Malaysia, Lee said it has a substantial market share in the ID card market.

"From the feedback and information we have gathered from the market and users, we strongly believe we are in the leading position.

"Both our current technologies, DTC and HDP, are popularly employed in government ID, education, membership/loyalty card, SME and other related markets. We have been serving the Malaysian market since the late 90s," he said.

Commenting on the coronavirus pandemic, Lee said HID Global did experience lower demand from certain market sectors.

"However, overall, our business performance remains strong and resilient.

"Leveraging on technologies, we provide more training, sharing and have more in-depth discussions with our partners. We are pretty sure, together with all our partners, we would be stronger in the foreseeable future," he said.