Security tab folds back to activate the time-expiring process, so the badge changes color overnight to prevent reuse.
Time-expiring visitor badges change color to prevent reuse and to eliminate the need for employees to collect them from visitors who have left a facility.
But since their invention almost 30 years ago, these expiring badges have always required multiple pieces to activate the color-changing process. This is a problem because the person issuing the badge doesn’t always assemble all the pieces properly (too little time or training). As a result, sometimes a visitor’s badge is activated, and sometimes it’s not.
At last there’s an expiring visitor badge, for electronic as well as manual visitor management systems, that takes the guesswork out of activating it: the Direct Thermal TAB-Expiring Visitor Pass, from Data Management Inc.’s line of “Visitor Pass Solutions” security products.
“It’s called ‘TAB-Expiring’ because it has a tab extending from one end of the self-adhesive label,” says Brian Gallagher, DMI’s president. “Instead of multiple parts, all of the expiration components are self-contained into one piece, making activation virtually foolproof.”
Here’s how it works. After the visitor’s information is printed (or written) onto the badge, it is peeled from its liner, and the tab is folded behind the badge to activate the color-changing chemistry. Overnight, a “VOID” image appears on the badge, dissuading departed visitors from trying to reuse their badge another day without authorization. Once activated, the tamperproof expiring process cannot be reversed, ensuring that every visitor badge will change color to void itself.
“We actually first introduced the TAB-Expiring Visitor Pass, for our manual sign-in book, in 2008,” says Mr. Gallagher. “Its popularity led us to develop this new version for electronic visitor management systems. Now employees in a facility can know for sure which visitors have permission to be there and which don’t, regardless of how they sign them in. And if a tab-expiring badge hasn’t been properly activated, it’s easy to tell, because the tab is clearly visible if it hasn’t been folded behind the label.”
The Direct Thermal TAB-Expiring Visitor Pass is available in packs of 1,000 badges (four rolls of 250). For manual visitor management, there’s the self-duplicating TAB-Expiring Visitor Pass Registry Book, which creates an ID badge and a log in one easy step.
