Laminating – EasyMount – waves causing lines. Help please?

[David Hammond]

Loosen the tension fully off the core holders, then loosen the bolts on ones side and push it firm into the core, tighten up, and apply minimal tension.

We were putting to much tension on the media.

Also too much pressure on the rollers doesn’t help.

How do you start laminating?

We have a piece of 5mm foamex wrapped in release liner, it’s probably 1600x300mm.

Raise the rollers fully

Pull the laminate over the roller so it spans the gap between the rollers comfortably.

Push your bit of foamex through the gap between the rollers, drawing the laminate through

Ensure the laminate is smooth against the top roller and lower the rollers to pinch the board

Set a low speed and draw the remainder of the board through, ones it stops, raise the rollers, the weight of the board keeps the tension on the laminate, place your media under the rollers, lower the roller and proceed laminating.

[Cheryl Smith]

I’m going to give this a go…im having the same issue with my Seal laminator…its hit and miss…:-(

[David Hammond]

Kind of like what they do in this video @ 8m 45s

[Peter Wynne]

Have to admit, we have an Easymount 1600SH, bought it at Sign & Digital this year and whilst it’s great for mounting, I too have yet to master the laminating.

The only way I have of doing it is to use the laminate like a piece of vinyl, and "mount" it to my print.
Using a piece of foamex, I just put the poster print (let’s assume it a poster) on the piece of foamex face up, cut my piece of laminate larger than the print, then using the same technique you would to lay vinyl down on the machine, apply the laminate. Then just trim the excess off and you have your laminated print.

Issues are that you obviously have to waste a piece of board (can re-use the same piece though which isn’t so bad), you have to use more laminate than you actually require, and if you have a load of things to laminate then it obviously takes a LOT longer to do than they should.

Quite frustrating really when you think how much these machines cost.

Vivid Laminating (the company we bought it off) have come out a few times to show us, but you still seem to have to waste a fair bit setting the tension up correctly and even then, whilst they claim you can leave it running roll-to-roll, I have yet to find anyone who has actually done roll-to-roll successfully.

I have never understood why laminating has to be so damn difficult?!?!

[David Hammond]

We bought a take up unit & more media holders for the machine at sign & digital this year, and can easily run 10m through it no problem.

We do get the laminate slit down so it’s 10-15mm narrower than the vinyl, to allow for it running out.

I find the wobble board by far the easiest way of getting it going.

There is a tiny screw on the Left Hand (looking from the rear) holder for the laminate, the bar can sometimes sit on that, which throws everything out.

[Hugh Potter]

I have an easymount 720 here, I think I’ve got the hang of it now, after 18 months or so!

1) keep the rear media holder loose, it will pull through what it needs.

2) Not to much roller pressure – use just enough to do what you need to do.

3) I laminated a lot of aqueous prints from my HP Designjet, these prints (610mm max) are typically narrower that the 630 laminate (actually a clear matt cast film) I run through the machine, I use the release liner from the previous job to keep the laminate from sticking to the media, a whole log sits on a home made holder below the front of the laminator, it took me a long time to get it level and stop it wandering around on the bar – if you use a release liner like I do you must ensure it’s square, pull a load through before putting the media in.

4) I think it’s inevitable after some metres that you’ll need to reset the media track, it’s just something I’m used to doing now!

I used it like in step three to flood coat 20 A1 correx boards last year, simply put the roll of required vinyl in the place of the laminate and away you go.. no need for masking, no squeegeeing or marking the vinyl, etc.!