Laminating Equipment-Heated Roll Laminator-Pouch Laminating Machines

	Pouch Laminating Systems and Machines
	Educational Heated Roll Laminators
	Commercial Heated Roll Laminators
	Wide Format Cold and Heated Roll Laminators

Laminating Machines: What Type of Laminator DO I Need?

Let me explain the different methods of thermal laminating; this will give you an overall picture and help you understand the lamination process. One method of laminating is with a pouch laminator, the pouch is two sheets of plastic with a thermal adhesive sealed on one edge to keep them together. The pouch lamination machine uses heated rollers that heat the laminating pouches' thermal adhesive as it passes through the laminator. Some pouch lamination equipment uses only two rollers, limiting the thickness of laminating pouch supply that can be used. The commercial type laminator, for example the Prolam Series laminator system, utilizes a four roller system to insure consistent heat and pressure, which is actually the basics to lamination.

Pouch laminating equipment is probably the most common process for home and office use. This is the easiest and most economical method. Laminate pouches and supplies are available in many stock sizes from credit card to a menu size (12" x 18"), The nice thing about this process is that the pouches are cut to size for you, when the pouch comes out the other side of the laminator it's done. The down side is some assembly required what I mean is you have to assemble the piece that you are laminating into the laminate pouch and according to what equipment or system you purchase you may be required to use a protective cover, this helps seal the laminate and protect the rollers.

Another technique of lamination is to use a heated roll laminator, this type of laminating system uses rolls of laminate film. Just like the pouch laminators it needs heat and pressure for operation. Most roll laminators require two rolls of film, one on top and one on bottom, There are some advantages to the heated roll laminator system, once the film supply is loaded on the machine you can continually run your documents through the laminator, great for large volume. Most roll lamination equipment has speed control and temperature controls to fine tune the process for the best results. The disadvantage to roll film laminating is that each laminated sheet must be trimmed down because it remains in web form. However there are roto type cutters that are available like our Roll@Blade paper cutter that makes this quite simple. Your initial investment will be greater but you are not limited to smaller sizes, and your cost per sheet is less. Roll laminators are available in 27" like the Mighty-LAM 27 and the roll film supplies are available in 12', 18" 25", 27" and wider roll films are available for the large format laminaitng machines like the Banner Finisher Series laminator in 36" 38" and 42" and even 60". Roll laminating equipment is the most versatile, having the ability to change from 12" film for menus, book covers, bookmarks, etc. to a 25" or 36" roll film supply for posters and point of purchase displays.