RFID Card Manufacturer in China

Why international buyers source RFID cards from China

Card buying decisions usually come down to three things — chip access, production speed and landed cost — and on all three the supply chain concentrated around Shenzhen is hard to beat. Proud Tek has built cards here since 2008, with inlay assembly, lamination, printing and encoding running on our own lines across two factories. The points below are the practical reasons procurement teams source cards from China rather than from domestic converters.

• 70%+Global RFID card production
• 15-30%Trading-co. margin avoided
• 5-7 daysProduction lead time
• ISO 9001Certified facility

• China produces over 70% of the world's RFID cards. The concentrated supply chain means access to every major chip vendor (NXP, Infineon, Fudan), every card material and every finishing option without cross-border sub-supply.
• Factory-direct purchasing eliminates trading-company margins of 15-30%, which compounds meaningfully on orders running from 500 to 500,000+ pieces.
• Standard production lead time is 5-7 business days after artwork approval — faster than most domestic suppliers in Europe and North America can deliver.
• Proud Tek is ISO 9001:2015 certified, and cards are built to ISO/IEC 7810, 14443 and 15693 as applicable — the same standards any Western-branded card conforms to.
• Dedicated export logistics: express courier, air and sea freight on FOB Shenzhen / Yantian or DDP terms, with customs documentation included with every shipment.

How an RFID card is actually made — five production steps

Every card follows the same five stages, run on dedicated lines and documented on a production traveler from PO to dispatch. Knowing the stages helps you read a quotation: each line item maps to one of these steps, and lead time depends mostly on which steps your card needs. The operators who run your pilot lot are the same people who run the production order.

1. Step 1
   1. Inlay assembly: the chip is bonded to an antenna in-house (wet-inlay assembly for HF 13.56 MHz and UHF), and any inlay that fails readability QC is rejected before it enters card production.
2. Step 2
   2. Collation and lamination: inlays are sandwiched between card-body layers and hot-roll laminated under controlled heat, pressure and dwell time — typically around 150°C at 20 bar for 5-10 minutes — permanently encapsulating chip and antenna.
3. Step 3
   3. Die-cutting: laminated sheets are punched to ISO/IEC 7810 ID-1 (CR80) dimensions, 85.60 × 53.98 × 0.76 mm — the same physical format as a payment card, so finished cards fit every standard reader, hotel lock and badge printer.
4. Step 4
   4. Printing and marking: four-color offset for volume runs, digital for short runs, plus screen printing, hot stamping and laser engraving. Print technology and artwork workflow are covered in depth on the card printing page.
5. Step 5
   5. Encoding and 100% test: UID reading, NDEF or sector data written during production, then a functional read test on every encoded card before packing. Data workflows are detailed on the encoding service page.

Card body materials we laminate

Material drives feel, durability and price more than any line item except the chip. Standard white PVC is the volume default; every other stock exists for a reason — wallet thinness, sustainability mandates, premium feel or harsh environments. All of the materials below run on the same lamination lines, and FSC-certified paper and bamboo composite stocks are available on request for programs with chain-of-custody requirements.

• PVC: the standard card body. Lowest cost, full print compatibility, and suitable for years of normal wallet use.
• PETG and ABS: tougher and more temperature-tolerant than PVC, specified for gym, pool and other high-handling environments.
• Polycarbonate: the long-service option for credentials that must survive a decade of daily use.
• Recycled-PVC and eco stocks: recycled-material cards for sustainability mandates, plus FSC-certified paper and bamboo composite options on request.
• Wood and bamboo: laser-engravable natural stocks for hotel key and premium membership programs — see the wooden card and bamboo card SKU pages.
• Transparent and metal: clear PET bodies for promotional cards, and stainless-steel bodies for premium business cards — metal detunes a 13.56 MHz antenna, so metal cards are built with a slot-antenna design to stay readable.

Chip families available for card lamination

We are chip-vendor agnostic, with direct allocation channels to the major chip makers and authorized-distribution backup for spot demand. The families below cover the overwhelming majority of card programs. If your application needs security-grade selection guidance — encryption, key handling, transit and payment-grade chips — that is the territory of our smart card manufacturer page rather than this one.

• HF 13.56 MHz workhorses: MIFARE Classic 1K/4K and MIFARE Ultralight for legacy access, membership and event cards.
• Security-grade HF: MIFARE DESFire EV2/EV3, MIFARE Plus SE and NTAG 424 DNA for transit, enterprise badge and authentication programs.
• NFC interaction: NTAG 213/215/216 for tap-to-open business cards, loyalty, review cards and marketing applications.
• LF 125 kHz legacy: EM4100, EM4200 and T5577 for older access-control estates that have not yet migrated.
• Vicinity and UHF: ICODE SLIX for library-style applications, and UHF (UCODE, Monza) card formats for parking and long-range identification, including dual-frequency combinations.

MOQs, lead times and export logistics

Card economics are sensitive to chip choice, print process and order volume, so we quote itemized rather than publishing a price list. The working numbers below are the ones buyers ask for first. Every quotation is returned within one business day, and free samples with RF test data ship before you commit to production.

• MOQs: custom-printed PVC cards start at 500 pieces (digital printing accepts runs as low as 100; metal and specialty materials from 200). Recurring production programs typically run 1,000-5,000 pieces per SKU.
• Sampling: free sample kits (5-10 cards) ship by express courier so you can verify chip compatibility and print quality before ordering.
• Production: 5-7 business days standard after artwork approval; express production is available for urgent orders. Pilot programs with locked encoding and packaging specs typically ship in two to three weeks.
• Shipping: 3-5 days to North America and Europe by express courier, or 15-25 days by sea freight for large-volume orders on FOB Shenzhen / Yantian terms.
• Reorders: repeat production moves on a 3-4 week cycle, with safety-stock and scheduled call-off programs available for distributors with steady offtake.

Quality assurance and documentation

Every card order generates the records a procurement audit will eventually ask for. Testing is built into the line rather than bolted on at the end: incoming inlays are checked before lamination, first pieces are inspected at line start, and every encoded card gets a functional read test before packing. The documentation pack ships with the goods, not on request.

• 100% electrical testing: every card is checked for chip response, antenna resonance frequency and read range before leaving the production floor, with a functional test report included in the shipment.
• ISO 9001:2015 quality management covering incoming material inspection, in-process controls and final outgoing QC, with records retained for at least seven years.
• Standards conformance: ISO/IEC 7810 (physical dimensions), ISO/IEC 14443 (proximity) and ISO/IEC 15693 (vicinity) as applicable to the chip family.
• Per-shipment compliance pack: commercial invoice and packing list with chip family and encoding lot, Certificate of Origin, radio-compliance Certificate of Conformity (FCC / CE as applicable) and RoHS / REACH SVHC material declarations.
• Third-party and buyer audits accommodated — including pre-shipment inspection by your QC agent in-house at no charge.

• ✓100% electrical testing on every card (chip response, antenna resonance, read range)
• ✓ISO 9001:2015 certified quality management system
• ✓ISO/IEC 7810, 14443, 15693 standards conformance
• ✓Per-shipment RoHS / REACH / FCC / CE documentation
• ✓Quality records retained for seven years

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