Laminators – A Buying Guide
What is a laminator?
A laminator is a machine used to permanently seal documents in plastic film ensure that they are durable, waterproof and protected from continuous use.
Uses for a laminator
Documents that might require lamination include ID cards, display cards, public announcements and documents placed in kitchens or bathrooms. Laminators have been used to seal historical documents in plastic to protect them from ageing.
Roll and pouch laminators
Pouch laminators laminate documents placed in plastic pouches of fixed sizes. Roll laminators laminate documents of any size with rolls of plastic film.
Hot laminators
Hot laminators gently apply heat to plastic film around a document as it rolls through the laminator, melting an adhesive which is solid at room temperature and fixing the film around the paper. Paperstone’s heat seal laminators can seal paper from as small as A7 up to large A2 sheets.
Cold laminators
Cold laminators seal self-adhesive pouches around documents by the application of pressure . Whilst cold laminators are cheaper initially they are more expensive to run as the cold lamination pouches are considerably more expensive.
How to use a laminator
A laminator uses heat to seal plastic around documents. To begin lamination, the laminator must be primed (allowed to pre-heat). While this is happening, place the document for lamination in the plastic pouch. Larger documents to be laminated may not use a pouch, but instead be placed between two sheets of plastic. Once the laminator is ready, the prepared document (and surrounding plastic) is placed inside and the laminator is closed around it for a few seconds while the plastic is fused.