On the 27th of May 2009, Evolis launched the new Tattoo RW with a dedicated live web conference.
We did not have the opportunity to answer to all your questions during this webconference.
Please find the Q&A below.
Are you going to increase rw mag stripe and Mifare cards to your rw cards portfolio?
Mag stripe rewritable cards are already available. Black Mitsubishi material to come in July.
Mifare cards won't be introduced in the catalogue. Too many different cards (UltraLight, 1K, 4K, …)
Warranty of the YMCKO-K ribbon?
Rewritable technolgy doesn't require YMCKO ribbon.
What's card price for Tattoo RW ?
Blue: 1,30 EUR Recommended Retail Price / card, Black: Price to come in July
Are the RW cards available through other manufacturers, or do we have to buy them from Evolis?
Evolis sells Blank cards with our without Mag stripe. Other type from manufacturers
If the card is slot punched will this cause a problem with the printhead?
Card samples to be sent to our customer service for further analysis.
Is this 2Y warranty time also for the print head?
Warranty of this new machine is 2 years for printer and printhead, limited to 15,000 card insertions
For single 1 day badge or visitor usage, what is the benefit of using the Tattoo RW vs. paper expiring badges?
Is a Mac driver available?
Depends on the number of visitors. Paper solution may be cheaper, but requires a ribbon and visitor perception is not that good as when a plastic card is used. Paper also create wasted material when rewritable offers modern and environmental friendly solution.
Does Tattoo RW have a different color of ribbons?
No ribbon, only rewritable cards that exist in standard in Blue and Black. Red and Green also available from Mitsubishi but contrast seems to be a bit low.
We are evolis partners, but also card manufacturers, were can we purchase the rewritable material?
Rewritable material is produced by Mitsubishi Paper Mills in Japan. Nagase is the representative for Europe. You can contact Mr LUEDECKE at Nagase : Luedeke[at]nagase.de
Nagase (Europa) GmbH
Immermannstrasse 65c
D-40210 Duesseldorf
Registriert: AG Düsseldorf, HRB 15281
Geschäftsführer: Hiroshi Hanamoto, Hiroyuki Kayashita
Tel.: +49 211 866 2033
Fax: +49 211 323 7068
Can we made pre-print Tattoo RW cards with Pebble 4 or another printer's ?
You can purchase from card manufacturer some card having only a little rewritable surface, so you can print on PVC on the surface not covered by the rewritable surface. Evolis on sells full card rewritable material so you cannot do it with our cards.
I didn't understand if you can provide a software application for any of the most important applications (Loyalty/Transport/Education/Visitor Management)
No, it is the role of each Evolis distributor, in each country to develop its own Software Editor network. Evolis is ready to help and support, but for language and 'cultural' issues, it is very important to source those software in-country locally.
What is main difference between old Tattoo1 RW and now new Tattoo2 RW, prolonged warranty, ethernet, anything more for customer ? Any change in speed, contactless reader options, reliability, print head lifetime, cleaning, ... ?
USB+Ethernet, 2 Years warranty, Exit roller + Card Hopper, new Mitsubishi balck material support, internal USB Hub for encoder easy integration, cleaning mandatory every 500 cards better to clean on a more frequent basis.
Pay attention to the fact that Parallel port disappear, Win 95 and 98 are no longer supported, Ricoh thin material not supported in the standard models, only upon project process, Colour slightly different."
Do you have a sample of a black card? How does it print on a black card since a rewrite only does black and white?
The card is not black, the rewritable material is transparent, and when you heat it, it prints in black
What kind software use Tattoo RW ?
Tattoo RW is supplied with a Windows driver so all kind of windows applications can print on Tattoo RW. eMedia Card Designer 30-day trial version is delivered with the printer.
Can you erase the cards with something other than a printer? For example a pencil eraser? Or an alcohol pen?
We don't know about the way to erase the card beside the printer process. The rewritable material is not a high security printing since you can erase the data so it is easy to amend data (i.e. mileage). So it is essential for card having a value to link the printed data to encoding, so the counterfeighting is not that easy.
When is the Tattoo RW officially available and when will launch materials be provided to your resellers?
First Tattoo RW will be delivred during the second week of June 2009. Sales and marketing material available from the web site today
Can we get these in red? or green?
Printer colour is Brilliant Blue. Red or Green covers may be offered for a special project. This is linked to a minimum quantity that cannot be less than 500 units.
When will you begin shipping in the U.S.?
See question regarding availability from factory. Count 5-6 weeks for the printers to be available from our facilities in Ft Lauderdale.
Regarding the 1-Year warranty : why not 2 or three years like Tattoo or Pebble?
Warranty is 2 years, limited to 15,000 passes
Is it possible to use pre-printed cards? For example with the logo of a customer?
Yes, you should turn to your local card manufacturer. If you don't know them, please contact the company Nagase that will forward you to one of their rewrite contact:
You can contact Mr LUEDECKE at nagase : Luedeke[at]nagase.de
Nagase (Europa) GmbH
Immermannstrasse 65c
D-40210 Duesseldorf
Registriert: AG Düsseldorf, HRB 15281
Geschäftsführer: Hiroshi Hanamoto, Hiroyuki Kayashita
Tel.: +49 211 866 2033
Fax: +49 211 323 7068
What are the dimensions of the rewritable area on a card?
Card is CR80, evolis rewritable cards alow a print area of 48x76 mm
Does the new model ejects the cards from the front side, quite like the Tattoo2?
Yes, The new Tattoo RW benefits from the exit roller and card exit hoper (15 cards)
Does it still use Ricoh Material?
Ricoh thin material is no longer supported. Available upon request through project process if needed. Please come to your Evolis Sales Rep. To evaluate the business potential.
Why our customer have to use or buy Tattoo RW Now ???
Download the Sales Tools from the Evolis web site so you get all the marketing/sales arguments
Please name some installations in Europe for Loyalty application ??
Most of the customers we signed asked for NDA's, so this information should not be disclosed. Please come to your Evolis Sales Rep. To get information related to your region
Are there substantial differences between the Tattoo RW and other Evolis printers in temrs of control codes for controlling the device?
Controlling a RW printing is quite different of course. Printing area, Printable area are different. But basically, this is documented in the SDK available from the Evolis Customer Service.
Windows 7 drivers?
Windows 7 has already been evaluated with our existing drivers and the report is promising. However, our past experience, with Vista, lead us to wait until deis new Operating System is stable 'til we confirm the driver's compatibility.
Do we have a combo version which is D2T2 plus Rewritable ??
Evolis decision has been made to create a dedicated product. To propose high performance in colour and in rewrtiet, it is essential to separate the two products. Our last 3-year experience demonstrate that developping a mixed-operation product (YMCKO/RW) is probably not the best way to succeed in large projects.
Do you integrate an encoder for only one unit?
Basically, adding an encoder requires resources in our Labs. We normally do that only when the current offer doesn't match the needs. This has to be evaluated in a case-by-case basis with your Evolis Sales rep. And the french Evolis team. It's a very expensive investment for only one unit.
Are there 64 bit drivers?
Vista & XP 64 bits OK
What is cost of replacement Print head?
The spare par will be released at 350 €
Does the Mifare encoder integrated into the TattooRW come with a PCSC driver?
Yes if you use it through its standard USB port.(Springcard Crazy Writer)
What is printer buffer memory?
Printer memory is the same than the Tattoo 2nd generation: 16MByte
What is the mean time between failure?
Currently still under evaluation
For how many days printed card is visble?
No restriction once it's printed, except that sunlights would burn the rewritable material and then definitely damage the card. So no sunlight to keep it visible during many weeks.
How does one prevent the images not getting completely erased?
By entering the Driver properties, you can go to the Advanced options and select a bitmap that will prevent some areas of the card to be erased. Bitmap is usually a customized file.
How frequently does the Tattoo RW require to be cleaned?
As often as you can, no more than 500 cards between two cleaning cycles (400 cards = alert)