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Prints buckling in laminator
Hi All,
Hoping someone may have solved this as it’s a new issue for us after some 6 years of using our laminator.
We have GMP Excelam cold laminator. For the most part it’s been trouble free but what we have now is a situation where the vinyl starts out okay going through but as it gets to 3 or 4 metres in, the vinyl appears to start buckling slightly which eventually would ruin a long print. If you’re lucky, the job will get through before the point of ruin. Any left over vinyl fed in to the printer from the front then looks visibly wavy where it would normally be flat on the platen.
What is mystifying about this is that nothing has really changed on the laminator. Earlier in the year we could laminate 5 or ten metre rolls without a problem. Changing the vinyl and laminate doesn’t seem to have made a difference either. The vinyl is clearly flat on the roll before we start laminating it.
The only thing that has changed is the weather – it’s very humid right now, but surely everyone would be getting this if it was down to that?
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10 Replies
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When was the laminator last serviced?
Kev
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Hello Kev,
That is a good question – probably two or three years ago, we replaced some minor parts as I remember, nothing major like the rollers.
The trouble with servicing this thing is that we’re quite a way away from the place that sells them, last time we had to take it apart and drive it up there because they wouldn’t come here (and it weighs a ton)..Do you think it’s just a servicing issue then or something a bit more specific?
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Our GBC started to do that but seems to have sorted itself out now.
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I had a similar problem with my Royal Sovereign laminator. If I remember rightly yours has the notches at the side where you set the thickness. I found that if the rollers were too tight together, then I would get buckling. Normally a slight adjustment would work, better still, get the machine services and all should be well.
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There are two tensioning knobs on the left side of the machine, the general idea obviously is to get the laminate running tight and even on the roll, which I have to say, we have tensioned at maximum in order to avoid any creasing issues. I tried backing that off but we seem to get that angled ripple pattern you see on the roll before it hits the vinyl, so we resorted to tightening it all back up.
I think I’ll try loosening both again and see what happens, I did notice before that when the tension is lower, the laminate pulls off the roll much higher up and it;s all a bit looser on the bars. We’ve never managed to get it to run very well on the lower tensions but I’m going to give it another try.
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quote NeilFox:I had a similar problem with my Royal Sovereign laminator. If I remember rightly yours has the notches at the side where you set the thickness. I found that if the rollers were too tight together, then I would get buckling. Normally a slight adjustment would work, better still, get the machine services and all should be well.
There are two large springs either side, inside the housing which need to be level and I believe they set the gap between the rollers, we’ve never changed those in six years. I wonder if there could be any expansion on the rollers in the recent weather that has made the rollers too tight?
Something else to investigate!
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Paul,
The tension knobs for the rolls of laminate / print generall dont need to be too tight. If they are, it streches the likes of the laminate onto the material and can cause problems with the print down the line.
The springs are the thing that adjust the the pressure of the rollers. However there is a bar too that runs from the control panel side to the other side of the machine. On the other side, there is a cam that is used to lower down the roller. If the handle has been too tight over a prolonged period of time, it seems to twist this bar so that one side comes down slightly sooner than the other. In this way the roller is off centre and will then skew the material between the roller and cause rippling.
If you have a local service engineer for the laminator I would get him to have a look at it. It would be better if he is familier with the workings of the Royal Sovereign, GMP and GDC type lamiantors.
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Thanks for this advice Neil,
I think I will take your suggestion of having someone have a look at it. What you’re describing sounds like it could well be the problem.
I don’t know if it’s possible with the material out of the machine, to lower the rollers together and visibly be able to see anything unusual in the way the rollers come together but I’m going to have a look anyway, then make a service call I think -
It is possible. If you lower the roller and let it rest on the other roller, no forced pressure. The look at the mahine, level with the lead in tray and check the gap on the right side of the rollers. (control panel end)
If the bar ihas a twist on it due to excessive pressure, the gap on the left will be slightly larger. It could be around 1mm but that wll do it when the rollers are pressed together.
Hope this helps
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Thanks Neil,
I’ll have a look at that
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