Turbo MagStripe Encoding

The all familiar Rinas high-end HWR magstripe encoder gets a makeover to deliver HICO encoding at up to 18,000 cards per hour on all 3 tracks simultaneously.

Aftholderberg, Germany, October 2011 – It’s all about speed and encoding accuracy, explains Rinas’ newly appointed CEO, Mr. Armin Rinas. The makeover takes advantage of specially developed high-end magnetic heads that enable both HICO and LOCO schemes to be selected at the press of a button. In addition, whereas the earlier versions of the HWR relied on two sets of HICO heads to encode all 3 tracks, the new version permits it with just one head, as the age-old problems associated with magnetic flux leakage and crossover have, to all intents and purposes, simply vanished! Of course, in keeping with backward compatibility, provision has still been made to cater for the 2 head option. In this constellation, yet another forward thinking aspect of the HWR kicks in – the heads currently not in use can be retracted or parked by software to reduce unnecessary head wear and to preserve the card that is currently being encoded.

 

Being an inline encoder, the Rinas HWR (Figure 1) neatly fits into existing personalization lines and communicates with the host via a serial interface. This simple yet effective form of communication yields a great deal of flexibility when it comes to card encoding. Apart from the usual ISO standards, the unit can be set up to process customer-specific standards and individual bit codings. The unit is also incredibly versatile and can expand along its width to allow even large-formatted gift cards, up to 204 mm to be encoded.

 

The read and write heads of the Rinas HWR can be positioned by software to suit the relevant thickness of the card. This not only reduces the applied force to the necessary amount but is kind to both hardware and the cards. Also, the customer has full control over maintenance policies simply by interrogating the head-pass counter built into the HWR. Once a predefined customer-level number of cards have passed across the magnetic heads, the customer can be made aware that head replacement, or other wear-part maintenance is due. All currently used transparent, metallic and even embossed cards do not present the HWR with any significant problems – another differentiator separating the precision Rinas units from its competitors.

 

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