MICR Engineering

The development of a MICR printer is a lengthy and iterative process requiring detailed knowledge and experience in mono and dual-component electrophotography, chemistry, statistics, electrical and software engineering and manufacturing.

Rosetta Technologies' team of engineers and chemists have a combined average of more than 25 years of MICR technology experience. They have developed an exclusive process for each model of printer that is chosen to be "MICRized". The following steps outline the intricate process in MICR printer engineering.

1. The team instruments and tests fully-configured standard versions of the printer. This extensive testing results in a performance data base that characterizes the printer’s operational performance parameters from first page out to full monthly duty cycle.
2. The data is then analyzed and used to create a MICR toner that matches the performance characteristics of the printer, while providing the signal strength, optical density, toner adhesion and cohesion, and yield required to meet ANSI and bank specifications for MICR printing. It also ensures that the toner produces a competitive yield for MICR printing.
3. This candidate MICR toner is then evaluated against these criteria by periodic printing of MICR lines, which are run through a MICR verifier and a new data base created to measure MICR signal strength, character formation, toner adhesion and cohesion and toner yield. This is an iterative process, often requiring changes to toner formulation, and each new candidate toner starts the process and data collection and evaluation anew. During this process, the E13-B and CMC 7 MICR fonts are tuned based on both print engine and toner characteristics to produce MICR characters that will be able to pass the rigorous evaluation of a bank reader-sorter for multiple passes.
4. Once a MICR toner is selected, pre-production bottles or cartridges are built and run on the printers, and the data collected from MICR line evaluation are reviewed for final acceptance. A thousand check samples are sent to a third-party check evaluation company where they are passed through a reader-sorter for a minimum of ten passes, and the data for each MICR character is recorded and evaluated. If accepted, the manufacturing specifications are developed to provide for production of OEM MICR toner.  
5. Finally, in our printer production process, every MICR printer is tested and the sample checks are evaluated on a MICR verifier for MICR signal strength and character formation, along with toner adhesion.