Background

A credit card allows consumers to purchase products or services

without cash and to pay for them at a later date. To qualify for this
type of credit, the consumer must open an account with a bank or
company, which sponsors a card. They then receive a line of credit
with a specified dollar amount. They can use the card to make
purchases from participating merchants until they reach this credit
limit. Every month the sponsor provides a bill, which tallies the card
activity during the previous 30 days. Depending on the terms of the
card, the customer may pay interest charges on the amount that they
do not pay for on a monthly basis. Also, credit cards may be
sponsored by large retailers (such as major clothing or department
stores) or by banks or corporations (like VISA or American Express).
Design
Credit cards are designed with complex security features to prevent
the possibility of fraud. These features involve the card's account
number, its signature panel, and its magnetic stripe. The card's
unique account number is the key piece of information needed to
conduct a financial transaction and must be carefully protected. To
prevent someone from using a wrong account number, or from
making up a phony number, companies rely on the laws of statistics
for protection. By using long account numbers they make it unlikely
that a number can be faked. For example, the Visa card has 13
digits, American Express has 15, Diners Club 14, and MasterCard
has 20. Mathematically, nine digits would provide one billion unique
account numbers (000000000, 000000001, 0000000002, and so
forth up to 999999999) which would be enough for all the customers
of a given company. (The largest companies, Visa and MasterCard,
only have about 65 million customers.) If only 65 million numbers are
assigned out of a possible 10 trillion possibilities, it is unlikely that
anyone will be able to mistakenly use another account number. If an
incorrect account number is mistakenly entered by a store clerk, it
will almost certainly not be accepted. This statistical security gives
companies confidence that someone is not making up a number
when conducting business over the phone. Of course, this security
measure does not help if someone obtains a real number and uses it
fraudulently.
Another security design feature involves the signature panel on the
back of the card. The signature is intended to document the owner's
handwriting so a forged signature on a receipt can be detected. To
prevent criminals from erasing the back panel of a stolen card and
putting on their own signature, the panel is printed with a fingerprint
design that is difficult to duplicate and that will come off when the
original signature is erased. If the signature is erased, this design will
disappear too leaving a white spot, which instantly indicates the card
has been tampered with. Some card manufacturers imprint the word
VOID beneath this panel, which is revealed upon erasure.
The magnetic stripe on the back of the card is a third security
feature. The stripe is an area coated with particles of iron oxide that
can be encoded with binary information, which identifies the card as
authentic. It is difficult to determine exactly what information is coded
on the strip because for security reasons companies do not wish to
discuss this. However, it is likely that the card's expiration date is one
fact recorded on the strip because automatic teller machines (ATMs)
will retain cards that have expired. It is unlikely that information like
credit limit, address, phone number, employer, is recorded on the
stripe because banks do not reissue cards when this type of
information changes.
Finally, some cards feature special features that make them hard to
duplicate, such as complicated holograms.
Raw Materials
Cards are made of several layers of plastic laminated together. The
core is commonly made from a plastic resin known as polyvinyl
chloride acetate (PVCA). This resin is mixed with opacifying
materials, dyes, and plasticizers to give it the proper appearance and
consistency. This core material is laminated with thin layers of PVCA
or clear plastic materials. These laminates will adhere to the core
when applied with pressure and heat.
A variety of inks or dyes are also used for printing credit cards.
These are available in a variety of colors and are designed for use on
plastic substrates. Some manufacturers use special magnetic inks to
print the magnetic stripe on the back of the card. The inks are made
by dispersing metal oxide particles in the appropriate solvents.
Additional special printing processes are involved for cards, like
VISA, which feature holograms.
The Manufacturing Process
The manufacturing process consists of multiple steps: first the plastic
core and laminate materials are compounded and cast into sheet
form; then the core is the printed with appropriate information; next
the laminates are applied to the core; and finally the assembled
sheet is cut into individual cards.

A magnetic stripe card is a type of card capable of storing data by
modifying the magnetism of tiny iron-based magnetic particles on a
band of magnetic material on the card. The magnetic stripe,
sometimes called swipe card or magstripe, is read by swiping past a
magnetic reading head.
The manufacturing process started by first applying the magnetic
stripe to the preprinted plastic cards via the hot stamping process
developed by the IBM IRD engineers.
The Stripe on a Credit Card
The stripe on the back of a credit card is a magnetic stripe, often
called a magstripe. The magstripe is made up of tiny iron-based
magnetic particles in a plastic-like film. Each particle is really a tiny
bar magnet about 20-millionths of an inch long.
The magstripe can be "written" because the tiny bar magnets can be
magnetized in either a north or south pole direction. The magstripe
on the back of the card is very similar to a piece of cassette tape
A magstripe reader (you may have seen one hooked to someone's
PC at a bazaar or fair) can understand the information on the three-
track stripe. If the ATM isn't accepting your card, your problem is
probably either:
A dirty or scratched magstripe
An erased magstripe (The most common causes for erased
magstripes are exposure to magnets, like the small ones
used to hold notes and pictures on the refrigerator, and
exposure to a store's electronic article surveillance (EAS)
tag demagnetizer.)
There are three tracks on the magstripe. Each track is about one-
tenth of an inch wide. The ISO/IEC standard 7811, which is used by
banks, specifies:
Track one is 210 bits per inch (bpi), and holds 79 6-bit plus
parity bit read-only characters.
Track two is 75 bpi, and holds 40 4-bit plus parity bit
characters.
Track three is 210 bpi, and holds 107 4-bit plus parity bit
characters.
Your credit card typically uses only tracks one and two. Track three
is a read/write track (which includes an encrypted PIN, country code,
currency units and amount authorized), but its usage is not
standardized among banks.
Further developments and encoding standards
In most magnetic stripe cards, the magnetic stripe is contained in a
plastic-like film. The magnetic stripe is located 0.223 inches
(5.66 mm) from the edge of the card, and is 0.375 inches (9.52 mm)
wide. The magnetic stripe contains three tracks, each 0.110 inches
(2.79 mm) wide. Tracks one and three are typically recorded at 210
bits per inch (8.27 bits per mm), while track two typically has a
recording density of 75 bits per inch (2.95 bits per mm). Each track
can either contain 7-bit alphanumeric characters, or 5-bit numeric
characters. Track 1 standards were created by the airlines industry
(IATA). Track 2 standards were created by the banking industry
(ABA). Track 3 standards were created by the Thrift-Savings
industry.
Magstripes following these specifications can typically be read by
most point-of-sale hardware, which are simply general-purpose
computers that can be programmed to perform specific tasks.
Examples of cards adhering to these standards include ATM cards,
bank cards (credit and debit cards including VISA and MasterCard),
gift cards, loyalty cards, driver's licenses, telephone cards,
membership cards, electronic benefit transfer cards (e.g. food
stamps), and nearly any application in which value or secure
information is not stored on the card itself. Many video game and
amusement centers now use debit card systems based on magnetic
stripe cards.
Magnetic stripe cloning can be detected by the implementation of
magnetic card reader heads and firmware that can read a signature
of magnetic noise permanently embedded in all magnetic stripes
during the card production process. This signature can be used in
conjunction with common two factor authentication schemes utilized
in ATM, debit/retail point-of-sale and prepaid card applications.
[4]

Counterexamples of cards which intentionally ignore ISO standards
include hotel key cards, most subway and bus cards, and some
national prepaid calling cards (such as for the country of Cyprus) in
which the balance is stored and maintained directly on the stripe and
not retrieved from a remote database.
ADVATANGES
It is actually resistant from tarnish, rush, corrosion and
scratching.
Aesthetic appeal- Stainless steel is available in many
surface finishes. It is easily and simply maintained resulting
in a high quality, pleasing appearance.
Corrosion resistance - All stainless steels have a high
resistance to corrosion. Low alloyed grades resist corrosion
in atmospheric conditions; highly alloyed grades can resist
corrosion in most acids, alkaline solutions, and chloride
bearing environments, even at elevated temperatures and
pressures.
Stainless steel rings are considered to be more eco-friendly
as compared to other types of metals.
High and low temperature resistance - Some grades will
resist scaling and maintain high strength at very high
temperatures, while others show exceptional toughness at
cryogenic temperatures.
High and low temperature resistance - Some grades will
resist scaling and maintain high strength at very high
temperatures, while others show exceptional toughness at
cryogenic temperatures.
Life cycle characteristics - Stainless steel is a durable, low
maintenance material and is often the least expensive
choice in a life cycle cost comparison.
Long term value - When the total life cycle costs are
considered, stainless is often the least expensive material
option.

Design Tips
Stainless steel membership cards look great with a cut thru or die cut
type or logo. We may need to make slight amends to your type or
logo to ensure certain letters or characters have enough support and
are readable. We provide a design proof for your approval of your
metal card design before we start production.

In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox
from French "inoxydable", is a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5%
[1]

chromium content by mass.
Stainless steel does not readily corrode, rust or stain with water as
ordinary steel does, but despite the name it is not fully stain-proof,
most notably under low oxygen, high salinity, or poor circulation
environments.
[2]
There are different grades and surface finishes of
stainless steel to suit the environment the alloy must endure.
Stainless steel is used where both the properties of steel and
resistance to corrosion are required.
Stainless steel differs from carbon steel by the amount of chromium
present. Unprotected carbon steel rusts readily when exposed to air
and moisture. This iron oxide film (the rust) is active and accelerates
corrosion by forming more iron oxide, and due to the greater volume
of the iron oxide this tends to flake and fall away. Stainless steels
contain sufficient chromium to form a passive film of chromium oxide,
which prevents further surface corrosion by blocking oxygen diffusion
to the steel surface and blocks corrosion from spreading into the
metal's internal structure, and due to the similar size of the steel and
oxide ions they bond very strongly and remain attached to the
surface.