Pouch Laminators Info.Com

Select right Pouch Laminator to suit your needs

Pouch laminators are generally used for laminating documents up to 18" wide. Pouch laminators are compact table top units are ideally suites to for creating ID badges or nametags, preserving family photographs, laminating menus and small posters .A pouch laminator can make a great addition to your home, office, school, or professional print shop. Pouch laminators are cost-effective and user-friendly with numerous models to fit practically any need.

With all of the outstanding laminating machines in the market, knowing which machine will fill your unique needs can be difficult. To make your selection process easy  we highlighted the the differences between the various styles of pouch laminators to help you make an informed decision about which laminating machine to purchase. Remember, what works best for someone else may not be a fit for your unique needs, so performing your own research is a crucial step in the process of purchasing a pouch laminator.

Lamination is the process of sealing a document (id card, letter, certificate, photograph, poster) or fabric between two layers of plastic film (one layer for single sided lamination). An extended version of laminating called "over laminating", is the process of mounting a laminated item to a "substrate" (stiff foam board, wood or metal backing) overlaid with laminating film.Roll laminators and Pouch laminators use heat to encase an item in plastic film. Tape laminators apply film with an adhesive backing . Dry Mount Press laminators use vacuum pressure instead of physical contact to apply film to high quality prints. These laminators are also ideal for transferring images to fabric.

Depending on the usage Pouch laminators may be categorised as Low volume machines primararily for home use, mid-level laminators for office or schools and professional laminating machines for high volume users are copy shops. When selecting a pouch laminator, you'll need to evalute the features that are most important to your specific needs.

Home Pouch Laminators (for Low Volume Usage)

Pouch laminating machines for home use offer the most basic features, without many of the advanced options that are used in office or professional settings. These laminators are most commonly available in 9" and 13" widths, and can laminate 3 mil and 5 mil pouches only.

Office Pouch Laminators (for Moderate Usage)

Pouch laminating machines for office use offer a greater range of features than those designed for home use, and can handle a medium-to-high volume of usage. These laminators are available in widths ranging from 4" to 13.5", and can laminate pouches from 3 mil and 10 mil thick. In addition to being able to stand up to more frequent usage than home laminators, office pouch laminators also laminate much more quickly (in some cases, more than three times as fast as the home machines).

Professional Pouch Laminators (for High Volume Usage)

Pouch laminating machines for professional settings are the most robust machines on the market, and offer the most features. These laminators are available in widths ranging from 4" to 44", and can laminate pouches from 3 mil and 10 mil thick (with select machines having the ability to mount and laminate simultaneously). Professional pouch laminators also have the highest maximum laminating speed, with some machines laminating 12' per minute. Nearly all industrial machines come housed within metal casings for added durability.

Nearly all pouch laminators are thermal machines, which means that they utilize heat to seal the pouch and fuse the layers together. Depending on the machine, the heat is applied by either heated plates or heated rollers. All machines utilize rollers to help ensure secure adhesion, eliminate air bubbles and move the laminated documents through the machine.

Most machines offer variable temperature control to allow users to adjust the heat level based on the thickness of the laminating pouch. Many pouch laminators also include a reverse feature, which makes it easier to clear jammed or misfed documents. Other popular features include a stand-by mode (preserves power while the machine is not laminating), the ability to laminate without a carrier sheet (used to prevent adhesive from oozing out from the edges of the laminating pouch and onto the rollers), cool rollers (help to reduce curling of laminated documents), and the ability to laminate photos.

Maximum Pouch Thickness:
It is important to check the maximum thickness of pouch the the machine can cope up with. Generally, most documents protection with a pouch of up to 125 microns per side. Commercial, industrial or professional applications will require pouches of a greater thickness for maximum protection and an appropriate machine will be needed to take these pouches.

What is the maximum size of the documents you are going to laminate?
An ID (or A6) laminator is just that - a machine that will not take a pouch any bigger than A6. The same applies to our A4, A3 and A2 machines. If in any doubt that you may occasionally need to laminate documents bigger than the standard size you typically laminate, then go for a machine that will enable you to handle this. As a guide, most people need to laminate A4 paper (normal size copier paper) almost all the time but also need to process A3 occasionally. This means that the trend in sales is towards A3 machines, which enables people to deal with these two key sizes.

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