The traditional credit card may soon be on its way out, if one Pennsylvania manufacturing firm has its way.
Introduced recently, the Dynamics ePlate credit card is an intuitive solution to an age-old problem: that magnetic strip on the back of your credit card. Comprised of paint, traditional credit card magnetic strips are static in that they cannot be altered, changed or even colored differently.
Dynamics Incorporated has found a way around this.
Inside this new credit card, the traditional magnetic strip is actually embedded in between the front and back of the card. Traditional strips are made from a type of magnetic filament that is poured onto the surface of the card and allowed to solidify. Measuring less than 1/10000th of an inch thick, this microscopic electronics board consists of a lithium polymer battery and circuits.
Since the actual “strip” is buried inside of the card rather than laid across the exterior, this means that the familiar strip itself can now be painted over and resemble something other than a bland, grey strip. Currently, the company is printing US flags over the original area of the strip as a way to show that the card’s manufacturing and customer support services are all US-based.
The card has two buttons on the front of it that allow users to reprogram the strip in the event a security breach or identity theft occurs. This can also be used to switch back and forth between various credit and rewards cards: in short, this credit card can be used in lieu of most credit cards and virtually all rewards cards.
Currently operating out of western Pennsylvania, Dynamics Incorporated currently employs approximately 100 people and works out of a facility that was formerly used as a torpedo manufacturing hub during World War II.
With deep ties to the local community and a dedication to bringing manufacturing back to the United States, Dynamics Incorporated offered a rosy outlook for the future of the industry, saying that more and more manufacturing will return to the United States as a result of a decreased need of human labor and an increase in automated manufacturing processes.