Over the last several years, the John R. Wald Company has tested a variety of materials and printing methods, and have determined that the thermal transfer printing process offers unmatched performance and quality for the production of license plates.Outdoor durability (guaranteed for up to 10 years with clear overlaminate), speed, and high image quality are some of the aspects that make this technology appropriate for the license plate application. Furthermore, the Matan Spark 1612 Printer is capable of producing license plate graphics with additional features that make this printer very flexible.

The Matan printer uses a 4-color thermal transfer process (CMYK) or 3 color (CMY) and a spot color for numerous printing possibilities: The NEW DigiTag 1650 printing system has six (6) individual print heads that can print process color plus two spots.

• License plates with merged graphic and variable data
• Specialty short-run graphic plate backgrounds to be embossed and numeral coated
• Motorcycle plates in a 2-up format reduces material waste with a slitting option
• Sign making requirements up to 16 inches wide
  

The Wald DigiTag System blends state-of-the-art thermal transfer printing technology and custom software to automate the printing of variable graphics, serialized and/or personalized plate numbers, and variable legends and/or symbols. Our robust DigiTag Plate Editor Software allows users to easily define the links between fields in a database to a background layout template for each plate or sign design.

This variability has the following components:

• Background Images
• Primary Alpha - Numeric field with in-line variable graphics
• Multiple variable graphic images
• Multiple variable text fields
• Variable bar code
  

Excellent Image Quality - Up to 400dpi resolution. (up to 1600 dpi on DigiTag 1650)

Multiple Print Widths - Full print widths of 12 and 16 inches to the edge of sheeting. Readily handles production of standard 6 x 12 license plates or two 4 x 7 plates, side-by-side (saves material costs). Accommodates larger European & South American license plate sizes as well as signs up to 16 inches in width.

Variable Data - Full featured variable data printing capabilities of serial numbers top legends, bottom legends, special characters, background graphics and variable graphic symbols.

Production Rate - Nominal 800 standard 6 x 12 plates or 2,400 motorcycle size 4 x 7 plates per hour at 400 DPI print resolution with up to 100% coverage.
Up to 1,770 standard 6 x 12 plates on the DigiTag 1650!

UV Resistant Resin Ribbons - Available in 150 and 300 meter lengths in process colors, 18 spot colors, Opaque White and Metallic Silver/Gold. Special spot colors available in master roll quantities. 500 meter lengths on DigiTag 1650.

Choice of Media Substrate - 100 yard standard, up to 300 yard capacity available with optional 3 or 6 inch diameter cores. Wide variety of approved media substrates from alternate sources and sheeting manufacturers.

Ribbon Economizer - Software controlled (not manual) feature saves individual ribbon usage when printing less than 4 colors.

Reverse Printing on Clear - By using unbonded sheeting and printing on the reverse side of the clear overlaminate, material costs can be significantly reduced by up to $0.30 per square foot.

Flexibility - Print license plates or signs, labels, banners, sublimation transfer products, vinyl binders, etc. Open up the opportunity for more than just license plates

• Integral static and dust elimination system
  
• Print head cooling system for high production of full coverage image printing

System Options

• Graphic Workstation with choice of graphic design and editing software
  
• Roll Handling System for Laminating, Slitting, and Roll processing
  
• DigiTag Database Server front-end order management system with Integration of Printing System to customer source data. This system also can be used to administer complete digital control over the entire manufacturing process from order to distribution. Other components such as the License Plate Digitizer (LPD) and the Production Enhancement System (PES) can be incorporated into the system to enhance the performance and options available to incorporate digitally printed and embossed license plates into the digital scheme.