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Hot v Cold laminating
I need to change my Easymount880c to a larger models to cope with a 54" printer.
Laminating seems to be pretty hit and miss anyway but I can just about get decent results from the 880 as long as it’s set up correctly initially.
Are there any major advantages with a hot roller laminator?
I know you don’t get silvering with the hot roller but are they any easier to use for laminating and board mounting which is why I need it?Are there any better options than the Easymount which seems widely used and a sensible price?
Many thanks
Nick
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8 Replies
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We’ve an easymount 1600, cold laminator.
We do get silvering but we’ve never had a complaint and it does disappear over within 24 hours.
We’ve also bought additional media mandrel’s so we can swap laminates in minutes, and also go the take up unit as we’re tight on space.
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Can’t really help with any sort of recommendations Nick, no experience with hot laminators, only ever used cold.
From posts I have read over the years it doesn’t seem to matter if they are hot or cold when it comes to things like setting up. They both need to be set up correctly or you get problems with the film like creasing.
Silvering as David says disappears after a day or so & I certainly haven’t ever had a problem with it as far as customers go.For me personally there would be no advantage changing & there is the increased risk of something going wrong I would imagine. Mounting to board would still be done cold (I believe) plus you may find that you still need to use a cold pressure sensitive film for some other jobs you do.
How much of your work requires that you match the laminate to the vinyl you are using? I would check that a hot version of the films you use is available if your thinking about changing. -
You do also get ‘heat assisted’ laminators which run at about 50 degrees rather than around 120 for hot laminators.
Stafford
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Hi i went from the laminator you have to a 54" cold easymount. I couldn’t justify the extra £2000+ for a hot one. It does the job and again as the others have said any silvering disappears after 24 hours and i also have never had a customer comment on it. Save your money and have a holiday 😀
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Our cold laminator cost about £500 works 99% trouble free. I dare say human error plays a big part
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Thanks for the useful replies, looks like cold lamination is as good an option as any…and I need that holiday!!
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We have a hot and cold Seal laminator that must be almost 18 years old.
Only ever laminate cold. The only thing we occasionally use the heat for is encapsulating and it’s a pain… have to wait for it to heat up, keep the rollers moving all the time so they don’t deform, often gets unwanted adhesive on the rollers, then when finished have to wait for it to cool down before using it for anything else (takes a lot longer to cool down).
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Hi Nick, We’ve been using a mounters mate laminator now for around a year or their abouts (its been a fast year) and its great. We shopped around a little and it came in cheaper than the Easymount cold except has the benefit of a single hot roller… Admittedly we don’t use it hot apart from maybe putting it up to 10’c before laminating to take the "chill" out of it.
I think its run of the mill to get silvering with cold PS lams but as has been said this goes away within 24 hours and if you have a little time and the customer is fussy then once its mounted to the board put the heater on the roller on and pass through a few times and it helps get rid of half the silvering almost straight away.
One thing i really like about the MM laminator was that the spindles have rulers up them so when setting the machine up you pick a number and through the 3 spindles if its matching up then generally it’ll always run true. its a little thing but very useful. hope this helps
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