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The following diagrams show laminators with heat shoes, but they are also generally applicable for a laminator with heated rollers. The most important thing: Always make sure the shiny (glossy) side of your film is the side that moves against the heat shoes or heated rollers! The dull side of the film is the side with the adhesive, and it will stick to the heat shoes or wrap around the rollers if you have theaded the laminator the wrong way.
Film with a 1" or a 3" core will almost always be wound with the adhesive side in. Film with a 2-1/4" core is wound with the adhesive side out. All of our newer model school or light commercial laminators require 1" core. If your laminator is an older model, it may require 2-1/4" film. Some of our new commercial laminators (like the D&K Laminex SuperKote) require 2-1/4" core film. (A 3" core adapter can be purchased for this machine.) Most of the industrial laminators use 3" core film. To thread film into your laminator, first turn the laminator off and make sure it is cold. Then remove the mandrels from the laminator and slide a new roll of film onto each mandrel. Take care to replace the top and bottom mandrels back into the correct position on the laminator. Then thread the film as follows:
Use the threading card that is provided with the new rolls of film to push the film into the laminator at the "nip," where the two rolls of film meet. Turn on the rollers and make sure both rolls of film are feeding through the laminator as in the diagrams below. |
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Once the film has been properly threaded, turn on the heat switch; when the laminator is hot, you are ready to laminate!
TIP: In between usage, always secure the film at the back of the laminator with a large metal binder clip (available from your local office supply store). This small amount of weight will keep the film from wrapping around the rollers next time you turn the machine on.