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  • Laminating help needed

    Posted by Daniel Evans on 24 May 2016 at 16:57

    Hey guys

    I’ve now bought myself a laminator to go with my nice big printer, i’m having a little difficulty using though.

    I’ve either had this done for me in the past or i’ve done it by hand so…I need a little idiots guide.

    I’ll tell you the issues i’m having and hopefully someone can tell me what i’m doing wrong.

    Firstly, it’s a 1600mm wide laminator with 4 roll holders, 1 for the print, 1 for the take up, 1 for the laminate and the last one for the backing paper.

    Here goes
    • I pull the laminate over the top of the big grey top roller and fold over about an inch of backing paper
    • I then pull the backing paper and tape it to it’s required roll leaving more adhesive exposed
    • I then use an old bit of corex to push against the laminate and line it up to go through the rollers (over time this will get a build up of laminate, do you remove it overtime or use new board or just continue?)
    • I then lower the grey roller and allow the corex to go through taking the laminate with it
    • Once that’s through i then line up the print and allow that to go though quickly adjusting the grey roller (not sure about this part)
    • Once the print has got through a certain amount, i’ll then tape it to the take up roller (not got this far yet)

    Issues
    i’m having little defects in the print, could be particles or could be air, should i be giving it a wipe while it’s going through?

    How do i know what pressure to put the print through and could this be causing the trapped air / dust?

    When it’s finished and there’s no longer any print, the laminates adhesive is exposed and keeps getting stuck round the bottom grey roller (I think t’s static causing this?) once it goes round a little it get’s stuck to the framework and it’s very hard to remove.

    Any help is appreciated

    Jon Marshall replied 9 years, 7 months ago 5 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • John Thomson

    Member
    24 May 2016 at 17:16

    Teething troubles?

    I found getting the pressure right comes with practice…….too much pressure is not good.

    You need to leave a little extra on your print so you can chop the laminate and there is not enough to stick to the roller.

    Depending on how clean your workspace is you may need to wipe the print as you go or use a dust roller on the laminator rollers before you start.

    John

  • Kevin Flowers

    Member
    25 May 2016 at 09:13

    Daniel
    You have he technique right just a case of practice for 15 plus years

    use a piece of composite instead of the corex works better, you have the right principle
    1. Seperate lam f how i did it for rom backing paper
    2. Attach backing to waste spool
    3. With laminate hanging down and laying flat on table use you board to push the laminate ib between the 2 rollers, use the foot peddle to power it through until you have 1/2inch left feed you print under the edge of the board tight up to the rollers, keeping a sideward force across the print use the foot peddle to feed the board & print through until the board is out the other side, cut through the laminate to release the board. Laminate your print, feed the board back in on the tail end & you ready to laminate the next piece. If you have no more to do lift your rollers when you want to use again press evenly & squarely on the board & lower rollers & off you go.

    Tension on laminate should be so that the laminate separates from backing just below the backing paper spool with no sagging. Rigid board helps with inserting laminate & tensioning when re-lowering the rollers

    Sounds a lot more labour intensive than it is becomes second nature

  • Daniel Evans

    Member
    25 May 2016 at 14:21

    Thanks guys

    I’ll take note of your tips and practice a little more.

    Successfully laminated a print, well the middle part lol, the front was all creased and the end got caught but the middle part looked perfect.

  • Pane Talev

    Member
    25 May 2016 at 21:21

    Hi Daniel,

    Will help if you write the make and model of your laminator.

    I recently purchased Royal Sovereign 1600mm laminator.
    I’ve found plenty of videos on YouTube with tutorials of the same model.
    Check You Tube for yours if you haven’t check.

  • Jon Marshall

    Member
    26 May 2016 at 10:40

    Welcome to the wonderful world of laminating.

    Other mistakes you will make will include; forgetting to put the pressure roller down and thus applying the laminate with no pressure – leaving hundreds of bubbles in it… The laminated vinyl folding back on itself and going back into the laminator…running out of laminate half way through a print etc.

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