Crafts In-depth Introduction

- Magnetic stripe - Introduction

- Magnetic stripe corecivity

- Types of magnetic stripe

- Main Application

- Benefits

- Artwork set up announcements

Crafts In-depth Introduction

Introduction - What is Magnetic stripe?

A magnetic stripe is the black or brown stripe that you see on your credit card, or maybe the back of

your airline ticket or transit card. The stripe is made up of tiny magnetic particles in a resin. The particles

are either applied directly to the card or made into a stripe on a plastic backing which is applied to the

card.

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Magnetic stripe coercivity

Magstripes come in two main varieties: high-coercivity (HiCo) at 4000 Oe and low-coercivity (LoCo) at

300 Oe but it is not infrequent to have intermediate values at 2750 Oe. High-coercivity magstripes are

harder to erase, and therefore are appropriate for cards that are frequently used or that need to have a

long life. Low-coercivity magstripes require a lower amount of magnetic energy to record, and hence the

card writers are much cheaper than machines which are capable of recording high-coercivity

magstripes. A card reader can read either type of magstripe, and a high-coercivity card writer may write

both high and low-coercivity cards (most have two settings, but writing a LoCo card in HiCo may

sometimes work), while a low-coercivity card writer may write only low-coercivity cards.

In practical terms, usually low coercivity magnetic stripes are a light brown color, and high coercivity

stripes are nearly black; exceptions include a proprietary silver-colored formulation on transparent

Crafts In-depth Introduction

American Express cards. High coercivity stripes are resistant to damage from most magnets likely to be

owned by consumers. Low coercivity stripes are easily damaged by even a brief contact with a

magnetic purse strap or fastener. Because of this, virtually all bank cards today are encoded on high

coercivity stripes despite a slightly higher per-unit cost.

Magnetic stripe cards are used in very high volumes in the mass transit sector, replacing paper based

tickets with either a directly applied magnetic slurry or hot foil stripe. Slurry applied stripes are generally

less expensive to produce and are less resilient but are suitable for cards meant to be disposed after a

few uses.

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Types of Magnetic stripe

Brown color(Lo-Co)

Black color(Hi-Co)

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Main Application

● Gift card

● Membership card

● Loyalty card

● Driver's license

● Telephone Card

● Hotel key Card

● VISA/Master card

● VIP card

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How does the magnetic stripe work

The end-user defines the requirements for the magnetic stripe including the signal amplitude expected,

the coercivity of the stripe, the encoding method and the bit density. The card manufacturer uses the

first two points to select the type of magnetic material to use. The system designer is concerned with all

four of the parameters.

As explained above, the stripe is made from many small particles bound together in a resin. The density

of the particles in the resin is one of the controlling factors for the signal amplitude. The more particles

there are, the higher the signal amplitude. The density (or loading) combined with the thickness give a

method for controlling the amplitude. Signal amplitude is important because it defines the design of the

readers for the cards. Standards exist (ISO/IEC 7811) which define the signal amplitude for cards that

are used in the interchange environment (such as banking). By conforming to these standards, a user

Crafts In-depth Introduction

ensures that the magnetic stripe can be read in any financial terminal world wide.

The bit density of the information is selected based on the user requirement. The ISO/IEC standards

(7811) give requirements for bit density for cards used in the interchange environment. These standards

define tracks one and three as 210 bits per inch and track two as 75 bits per inch. The bit density in

conjunction with the data format dictate how much data is encoded on each track.

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Benefits

1. Added security in view of the fact that it is not in human readable form.

2. Immune to contagion with dirt, water, oil, moisture, etc.

3. Data can be customized or rewritten.

4. High data capability on the subject of bar codes.

5. No moving components, physically robust.

6. Well-known standards.

7. No consumables necessary for writing or rewriting.

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Artwork set up announcements ● Magnetic stripe size:85*12.5mm.

● Position: 4.5mm from top of the card.