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Hot or cold lamination – advice needed please?
Hi everyone,
I’ve been using a cold laminator for the last couple of years which sometimes gives me a bit of grief applying Oraguard 290 cast laminate. I’m hopefully going to be purchasing a 54 inch printer/cutter in the next couple of weeks and was wondering if the Chinese laminators which are basically just two powered rollers are suitable for applying Oraguard 215 and 290 laminates without heat?
While speaking to a few people regarding laminating I have been given contradicting advice. Are cold laminators suitable for most vinyl/laminate combos?
The one that I have been using is again basically just two powered 800mm rollers manufactured by Hot Press. This laminator is great for applying Oraguard 200 laminate but I want to use polymeric and cast vinyls and I’m not sure if it’s my technique that’s not up to scratch or the machinery.
Any help on this issue would be great.
Cheers
Ewan
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8 Replies
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We have an easymount 1600 cold laminator.
It will laminate, cast, mono, and polymeric film easily.
We did have a polar signs prior to this that, well… wouldn’t laminate anything. The easymount has a far superior tensioning system, we’ve done runs of 25+m withoit a snag.
What issues are you experiencing?
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Same as David, where I was last we had a 1600 easymount hot/cold but only ever used it cold. We didn’t really do any wrapping but laminated plenty of wrap vinyl for others.
We also had no problems doing long runs, up to 50m.
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we run a 65 inch wide cold laminator and have for about 10 years. 😀
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Thanks for the replies. I ordered Oraguard 215 poly laminate today to try with our existing laminator. Am I right in saying that hot only reduces silvering slightly?
Cheers
Ewan
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I run a seal hot/cold…I use it on hot, no silvering…but you do need to pay careful attention to the tensioning as you can stretch the laminate, leading to pull back on install…every days a school day 🙄
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We have a seal hot/cold too and I 95% of the time just use cold laminating but when we need the best result I tend to cold laminate first then run it through after with the heat on. This may seem like double handling but you dont get the stretching like cheryl says and it comes out just the same.
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good idea Vic
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quote Vic Adair:We have a seal hot/cold too and I 95% of the time just use cold laminating but when we need the best result I tend to cold laminate first then run it through after with the heat on. This may seem like double handling but you dont get the stretching like cheryl says and it comes out just the same.That is a great little hint Vic. Thanks for sharing.
There is also heat assisted laminating. Like Robs laminator, the Neolt 1650C / Uniform Guardsman he has is classed as a heat assisted as one of the rollers will run at 50 degrees, rather than 120 degrees on a hot laminator.
Stafford
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