Choosing the  correct  Laminator

Identifying correct laminator of any application  is easy task: You need to consider several factors.

• What needs to be laminated (paper, fabric, wood)?

  in case you are using  your  laminator for mounting, you could  probably be laminating thicker items  such as wood & foam  board in which case you must make sure that your  laminator  can handle  it.  You might want  to look into purchasing a Dry Mount Laminator or Pouch laminator with spring loaded rollers to accommodate thicker laminations.

• What size (credit  card, 5x7 photo, 30x24 poster)?

  Depending  on what you would be  laminating, you will have to determine what pouch width is necessary dedicated to your purposes.  If you  just want to laminate ID  cards,  then a  4" width pouch laminator should suffice. in case  you want to laminate heavy items such  as posters, you are probably best  off only with wide format roll  laminator.

• How many (one or two, dozens, hundreds)?

  Do you plan to use your laminator on daily basis? in case there will be  lot  of source passing  through this  machine, you might want to make sure that  you  get heavy  duty laminator.
  Make sure it is made just with steel gears, 4  rollers &  metal  casing instead of  plastic  only for durability: If your  volume is very high, almost  constantly  running, you might wish to get  an industrial laminator that could action 20  feet in a minute.  You might be  working out of your home office, in which case all you would need is tiny pouch laminator.

• Will thing be laminated on one side, both sides  or  mounted to substrate?

  You will have  to make sure that  in case you  are mounting, your  laminator would be able to accept thicker items. Good things to look only for  are spring-loaded rollers because they automatically adjust to the object's thickness & still  apply pressure  to  object  dedicated to great laminations.

• Where will  laminator  be used?

  in case it is  being used in an office dedicated to  example, it might be helpful  to get a  laminator  just with  a standby  switch  so  that you could leave it  running all  day , it will be ready to use at anytime. You might also might want  to  make sure that your laminator has a ready light so that you could see when it is ready to begin laminating.

Types of Laminators

Hot Lamination

Pouch
Pouch Laminators are compact tabletop units designed dedicated to laminating documents up to 20" wide: Theses business appliance are ideally  suited  only for  creating ID Badges, protecting photographs, making  petite window displays or  sealing  certificates.
Depending on the task, pouch laminators  are  available in two, four or six  roller configurations. The more  rollers, higher production capability , excellency of lamination: Pouch Laminators are the cheapest  of laminators starting at  around $80.  Although they start fairly inexpensive, there  are many  high greatness heavy-duty pouch  laminators  that cost up  to  $600.

Roll
Roll Laminators are designed for laminating larger  documents up to 60 inches wide (wide format) and one inch thick.  equipment are  available ranging only from single  event use to  moderate office applications to commercial grade units running continuous 1000' rolls of laminating film in high production environments.  To  accommodate larger  sizes, higher  production rates and  provide  quality end product, roll laminators include advanced procedure  control features like Variable Speed, Temperature Control Adjustment, Reverse Roll, Pressure Adjustment, Slitters  & Cooling Fans. In addition to hot lamination,  over-laminating, cold  film  mounting , substrate  mounting action are possible  only with heavy roll laminators.

The document is fed into laminator on feed tray. Where it meets film is  called the "nip".  The  adhesive in the film  has  already been activated only with heat by  either "heat  shoe"  or a heated roller.  In "nip" film is pressed into the document  just with first set of rollers: It then passes to the second  set of rollers,  called "finishing  rollers".
Roll Laminators are amongst  more expensive  laminators: They  start at around  $1,000 & are as much as  $5,000. There are small number of industrial  models that  could reach up to  $10,000+.

Dry Mount
Dry mount laminators use a tissue  adhesive, calculated heat,  pressure settings & duration to apply substrate  to document. The tissue (adhesive) is inserted between document & substrate. It is then placed in  the  press  where a pre-determined temperature has been set: It is pressed dedicated to specific time period as the adhesive is heated & forced into both  the  document ,  substrate, thus adhering them together. If pre-determined length in time  has been fulfilled and strong bond has not occurred,  the document may be pressed again. Additional "pressing" does not cause damage to either substrate: Dry mount presses vary in price that are from  $1,500 to $6,000.

Cold Lamination

Tape
Tape Lamination is  the  action  of  "sandwiching" document between two layers  of film  just with pressure.  The film's adhesive  is already in a "tacky" state.
The  tape (both top  , bottom) is  contained in pre-wound roll cartridges that simply pop in to the laminator.  The document and laminate  are pulled  through the  two pressure rollers by rollers themselves.  is  achieved by  manual hand crank or push button.

Tape  Laminators  require no  electricity,  instead employing an  innovative replaceable tape  cartridge system. Tape Laminators transfer pressure tape or film to flat material or  PSA over-laminate to  finished source (signs or  promotional items). Designed primarily dedicated to sign  & graphics applications, Tape Laminators are typically used in sign shops, photo-finishing  labs, reprographics shops &  manufacturing plants.  Available in either electric  or manually operated roller models,  tape  laminators are efficient  & easy to use machines: Tape laminators  are also  fairly  inexpensive starting  around $150.

• Adjustable Temperature Control -
Adjustable  thermostats allow  dedicated to utilization of broader range of film thickness  & lamination substrates. Adjustable dial thermostat allows for unlimited temperature adjustments over broad  range, ensuring exact heat setting required dedicated to your  application.

• Carriers  -
A folded  thing of  cardboard just with  non-stick coating  on one side (glossy  side), that is used to protect laminator. It accomplish by catching any excess adhesive that  may squeeze out the sides  of pouch during the heat and pressure process.  It keeps the  excess adhesive that are from  getting on laminator rollers , reducing its overall  life span and performance. The carrier  can aid in the lamination action  by keeping heat uniform as  well  as creating  added pressure  to document dedicated to  more crisp laminate.
• Clouding -
Lamination  defect that is result of not using  enough heat in the lamination process.
• Cooling Fans -
State-of-the-art roll  laminators feature cooling fans located at  back of  the  machine. These  fans transfer heat that are from document , vent it into  surrounding air  to rapidly cool lamination. Laminations that cool  rapidly upon exit are curl free & could  lay flat.
• Cooling Plates  -
Cooling plates are located on the back end of unit & absorb the heat coming off the exiting  lamination, displacing it into the air. The  rapid cooling  procedure allows the  document to lay flat providing "curl free" results.



• Cooling Tray -
provides flat surface dedicated to  exiting lamination to cool down on: As air cools lamination  evenly, the  document lays flat providing "curl free" results:
• Heat Platens  -
High wattage silicone bonded heaters provide quick warm-up & uniform heat  maintaining the heat platens at the  desired laminating temperature.

Heavy Weight Platens/High Wattage Heaters - Heavy weight platens are  usually 3-4  times  thicker than standard platens.  This extra mass  prevents rapid heat  loss  while laminating heavy size documents, heavier film weights or long  production runs.
Light  Weight Platens &  Heating Tapes - These  lower cost components, when laminating larger  documents  or using heavier  film weights, allow the heat platen temperature to fluctuate over broader range resulting in less than excellent results.

• Heat  Shoes -
Solid aluminum extruded heat shoes  heat up to operating temperatures & melts adhesive on film as it is  drawn across the shoes.

Heavyweight heat shoes - designed  to wrap around the front rollers , provide more heating surface: The more heating surface, the longer  dwell  time  as  the film moves across heat shoes. Heat shoes that wrap around front rollers efficiently heat the rollers for a better,  more excellent lamination.
Lightweight heat  shoes - do not  retain  heat as well as heavyweight shoes. big heat shoes provide  extra mass to  prevent rapid heat loss while  laminating heavier films, thicker items  or longer production runs.

• Heated Rollers -
A heated roller heating system is where the roller itself is heated internally. The heat is then transferred to the document through roller.  system is closely related to that  utilized by small number of roll laminators.
• "Orange peel" -
lamination defect  that is result of too much heat in laminating  process.
• Over laminating -
The action of mounting a laminated item to "substrate"  (stiff foam board, wood or metal backing) overlaid only with laminating film. 
• Preset Temperature Control -
Less expensive pouch laminators have  preset, non-adjustable temperature setting.  machines typically utilize one sometimes two different film weights.

• Pressure Adjustment -
Adjusts pressure of rollers against lamination to accommodate the  thickness of thing being laminated.

Laminators only with adjustable pressure  could be accommodated just with either: 

Lever Lock type pressure  adjustments are pre-set dedicated to specifically thickness intervals. Simply rotate the lever to corresponding  mark  , it locks in place adjusting pressure accordingly.

Pneumatic kind  pressure  adjustments rely on compressed  air  pressure  to  adjust the  roller  heightness to accommodate thin as well as  thick substrates up  to 1" thick.

Ratchet kind  pressure adjustments manually spread heat shoes &  roller assemblies to preset stops to  laminate  substrates up to  �" thick.

• Pressure  Sensitive Adhesives -
(also called "cold film") require  no heat or  very limited  heat  to  adhere. PSA film will adhere to almost any of  substrate , works great for over-laminating  &  mounting. 
• Pressure Sensitive Take Up  Mandrel  -
additional mandrel located on the top of a roll laminator directly in front of the upper film supply mandrel. It is  designed  to peel  away pressure sensitive (cold)  film release liner just  prior to film contacting document: As mandrel is peeling away release liner it  is neatly rolling it up only for quick & easy discard.



• Rollers -
most critical contributor to finish greatness in a pouch laminator.  They provide pressure to your  laminate. The  highest  excellency rollers  are combination of  metal & an  external rubber coating.  rubber  allows dedicated to  greater  pressure and smoother finished laminates. only some rollers are  coated just with silicone, which reduces risk  of adhesive build up.

2 Roller - On a 2 roller machine, you  only have rear rollers that act as  both the feed & finishing rollers. Two roller  designs  are found on the more economical units: When using two-roller laminator, you should always initially feed document through business appliance at  a slow even speed until the rear rollers grab.
4 Roller - On 4 roller machine, the front two rollers feed the  carrier into  the laminator at a uniform speed to guarantee even heat  distribution. The  second set of rollers, called finishing rollers, flattens  film, eliminating  wrinkles , curls at the exact length in time  applying  pressure, forcing activated  adhesive  into  the document.

• Reverse Roll -
In event the lamination should  wrap-around the rear rollers during the lamination process, the reverse roll feature allows  user to quickly rectify  situation. 

Manual - The Manual Reverse feature  is free floating crank that when depressed (the motor must be turned off) & turned will crank rear rollers around , correct situation.

Automatic - automatic reverse  allows experienced user to quickly alleviate  the problem only with a simple touch of  button.

• Slitters -
"Inline trimmer" are used to trim one or both  sides of a document as  it is being laminated.
• Spring Loaded Rollers  -
High-pressure springs are  used  to force the  rollers down  flat only for great edge seal on thin document  laminating.  When  document mounting  board  is  used, springs allow the roller to automatically adjust to accept document while still keeping maximum pressure on the document.



• Unibody  construction -
Consists of 2 interlocking halves that are molded dedicated to  strength & durability: When assembled,  the halves lock together into a single unit providing a  solid  platform  in which  other components could be built  within the  machine.



• Variable Speed Control -
Eliminates need to manually adjust  temperature when changing  film weights. The user will increase the speed for  less heat (Less length in time  contacting the  heating element) or decrease the speed dedicated to more heat (more  time contacting the heating  element).