• General Printing Topics

  Wet or dry lamination advice please?

  Posted by Craig Newton on 5 November 2009 at 00:13

  right guys im in the market for a laminator now do we prefer wet laminate or dry laminate? any help apreciated, cheers guys

  John Childs replied 16 years ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Martin Pearson

  Member

  5 November 2009 at 00:25

  Craig, when you say do we prefer a wet laminate or a dry laminate I take it you are talking about using either a liquid laminate or a film ??

  I don’t do any printing inhouse but from what I have read on the subject a lot will depend on what sort of work you are doing and what you expect the laminate to do.

• 

  Robert Lambie

  Member

  5 November 2009 at 00:36

  i don’t have allot of experience with wet lamination, so maybe someone else will tell you different. but i think dry lamination is far better…

  regardless of possible poor/dull print finish, a nice gloss over laminate will leave your dull patchy print nice and glossy.

  Dry over laminate will give UV protection.
  wet over laminate will give UV protection.

  Dry over laminate will give chemical attack protection.
  wet over laminate may, but i wouldn’t imagine offer much chemical attack protection.

  Dry over laminate will give abrasion protection.
  wet over laminate, again i doubt much if any abrasion protection.

  Dry wrap over laminate will conform with vehicle contours.
  wet wrap over laminates have a tendency to chip/flake when stretched.

  dry over laminate is much quicker and not messy…
  wet over laminate is slow and requires storage and drying time etc

  If you go with a dry laminator you then have the option of using it to apply application tape to large prints and the like.

  you can also use the laminator to mount/flood coat vinyl onto sheet material and so on…

  as i said… im sure someone else maybe able to tell you the benefits better than i have…

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  Owen Lees

  Member

  5 November 2009 at 09:10

  quote Robert Lambie:

  as i said… im sure someone else maybe able to tell you the benefits better than i have…

  Nope.. I’d have the same answers too Rob.

  Oo

• 

  John Childs

  Member

  5 November 2009 at 10:48

  quote Owen Lees:

  Nope.. I’d have the same answers too Rob.

  Me too.

  And I would add that, although I know that there are people that do it, I wouldn’t consider using liquid laminate on a vehicle graphic. it’s just not robust enough for that sort of environment.

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