Method for the continuous fabrication of access control and identification cards with embedded electronics or other elements

A method for the continuous fabrication of electronic access control cards, comprising the steps of:

• extruding continuous upper and lower layers of hot extrudate material;
• introducing a continuous carrier sheet between said upper and lower layers, said carrier sheet bearing microcircuits at spaced locations therealong;
• pressing said upper and lower layers into adhesion with each other while in a plastic state thereby to make a composite sheet of substantially constant thickness having an upper and a lower surface and containing said microcircuits suspended in said extrudate material in spaced relationship to both said upper and said lower surface;
• cooling said composite sheet to solidify said hot extrudate material;
• and
• cutting said composite sheet thereby to cut out access control card blanks containing a microcircuit in substantially consistent relative position in each card blank;
• characterized in that said carrier sheet is narrower than said composite sheet and has openings between consecutive ones of said microcircuits in said continuous carrier sheet, said openings having a length somewhat shorter than the width of said carrier sheet and a width measured along the length of said web sheet somewhat greater than the spacing between consecutive ones of said card blanks thereby to allow contact between said upper and lower layers for bonding along all edges of said card and to limit the web edge to show only along small portions of card edges for improved esthetic appearance and prevent delamination of the card in use, and additional openings in said carrier sheet to permit bonding of said upper and lower layers to each other at additional locations between said edges of said card.