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Hot or cold Laminator, advice needed please?
Hi.
We have just bought a printer plotter with the intention of being able to offer Prints on Canvas, Wallpaper & vehicle prints, including wraps. My son has just given up his job as a "sign fitter" He’s been involved in the industry since leaving school, about 5 years now. He’s done some wrapping, but never actually made them. He’s always said that we will need a Hot Laminator, but from reading another thread, it seems Cold is the way to make Wraps. I’ve seen some at about £600 for a 1600cm. Will a cold Laminator be sufficient?
Thanks
Dave:police: Mod-Edit
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3 Replies
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when laminating cold you will get a slight silvering where the laminate has been bonded to the print this will go in 24 hours, with a hot laminator there is no silvering so if you do a lot of rush jobs you can laminate and ship to customer with a cold laminator you cannot.
to be honest i have a cold laminator and it works fine, prints have to be gassed off for 2-3 days anyway so allowing 3-4 days for this will include laminating
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Dave, push your budget a little and get a hot laminator. A hot laminator is so much more versatile. Getting a constant perfect finish everytime on large sheet material with a cold machine can be a bit of an art ( I’m not saying it can’t be done, but…… )
Most if not all machines with heated rollers can be used cold.
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Big difference in price between the 2 types of machine so I would be looking at firstly what I really wanted it to do & secondly the cost of consumables, don’t know a lot about price differences between hot & cold films.
What printer have you got as this will make a difference as well. If you are doing canvas printing then you would use a liquid laminate rather than a film, for some types of wallpaper then a liquid laminate will work better than a film as well.
As Dave says a hot laminator is more versatile but if your not going to be doing any of the work that requires a hot film then why pay the extra.
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