Kern Group has launched a unique and innovative new card-processing system, the Kern 90 with RoboCard technology, which boasts a range of unique features including the ability to place up to eight cards anywhere on a document, as well as handling cards of varying sizes, shapes and thicknesses – all at speeds of up to 12,000 per hour.
 
Particularly appropriate for use in retail, finance and telecom sectors, for loyalty and gift cards, credit cards and sim cards for mobile phones, the Kern 90's pick and place robot opens the door for far greater creativity in card mailings than ever before.  
 
Kern's national sales manager for mailing, Clive Martin, said: "Each processing step is monitored, and an ergonomic user interface makes system operation and application changes extremely simple and intuitive."

The K90 is able to interface to many database formats and read a complete range of ID codes and chips, including magnetic strips, 1D barcode, 2D datamatrix and OCR, so that it can validate card data to a main database. Additional information can then be pulled from the database to print black or colour and personalise the cut sheet or continuous mailer before the robot picks and places the card on it.
 
Cards from up to eight feeders can be attached using glue or double-sided adhesive, with up to eight items being attached to each document, with an accuracy of ± 0.005mm and at any angle between 0° and 360°. One RoboCard module can affix up to 8,000 single cards per hour, and two can handle 12,000 per hour.

Being modular, the Kern 90 interfaces seamlessly with existing Kern mailing systems such as the 2500 and 2600, enabling completed mailers to be neatly inserted into envelopes, which could also be personalised with black or colour print before being posted.
 
Less complex mailers, such as those needing only one card per mailer with standard placement, can take advantage of smaller, cheaper, alternative K90/4.