Self Expiring Badges

If you want to make sure that someone who had permission to enter your building once does not abuse the privilege and come back uninvited, you may want to consider self-expiring ID badges. Many of the hassles associated with temporary ID badges are removed by this ingenious solution to visitor management. Your security personnel will be able to do a quick visual check to make sure someone is allowed to enter, thus saving time and ensuring safety.

With other temporary ID badges, someone on staff might have to maintain constant vigilance to make sure badges are collected when visitors leave. This is almost impossible to do. Because you can't fully control whether every visitor turns in his visitor's pass, you have to be much more careful about checking the specific dates and times on a visitor's badge any time he enters, or else spend time and effort on an elaborate color coding system.

You can probably get a self-expiring badge that lasts just the right amount of time. They are available in half-days, single days, and weekly or monthly durations. Even if someone will be working with you for three days, it's easier to give him a single day self-expiring pass each of three mornings than it would be to use almost any other method of visitor identification.

Pre-Assembled Self-Expiring Badges

Self-expiring badges work by setting off an irreversible reaction when you stick the front printed sheet of the ID badge on a background sheet with stripes that emerge over time. You can also get pre-assembled self-expiring badges. They come with a liner between the front and back panels, attached on one side. All you have to do is separate the sheets, tear out the liner, and press the front and back together to activate the expiration.