Pouch Laminator
Questions

There are many different brands of pouch laminators on the market. We sell only those we have tested extensively and believe to be the very best ones. Pouch laminators fall into basically three categories:

A pouch laminator is made up of one or two sets of rollers, heating elements, a cooling tray, and a protective housing. To use a pouch laminator, you turn on the heat switch and the run switch. When the indicator light turns off, the laminator is hot enough to begin laminating. You then take the product to be laminated, position it inside a laminating pouch, slide the laminating pouch into a paper carrier, and insert the carrier into the front (feed) area of the laminator. The laminator does the rest. It conducts your product over the heating elements, which melt the adhesive inside the laminating pouch. The rollers apply pressure to the heated pouch, encapsulate your product in the laminate, and push the product out to the cooling tray. Then you simply slide your finished, laminated product out of the carrier and re-use the carrier for the next piece to be laminated.

Your pouch laminator has a temperature gauge, which you can adjust to apply less heat for thin pouches and more heat for thicker pouches.

If you have a four-roller pouch laminator, you need only touch the carrier to the nip of the front feed rollers in your machine, and they will conduct the carrier evenly over the heating elements to the back pull rollers, which conduct the carrier out of the laminator. If you have a two-roller laminator, there are no feed rollers.

If you are laminating a 12" x 18" menu size pouch, we recommend that you (1) turn off the run switch, (2) place the carrier squarely against the nip of the front feed rollers, and (3) turn on the run switch. This will ensure the carrier moves straight through the laminator without catching on the sides.

A laminating pouch consists of two pre-cut pieces of plastic with an adhesive layer on one side. To form a standard pouch, the two pieces are joined together with the adhesive inside and a 1/8" clear seam on one side; the pouch forms a sort of "booklet" that can be opened up to insert the product you want to laminate. A standard pouch must always surround the insert with a narrow border of clear laminate (edge seal), so it will not come apart.

To form a butterfly pouch, a single piece of laminate is scored in the middle, along the fold line. The pouch lays out flat (looking like a butterfly) and can then be folded together, adhesive side in, to sandwich the product to be laminated.

Pouches are available in many standard sizes, from credit card size to menu size, and larger. Custom pouches are also available.

Choose a laminating pouch that is at least 3/16" larger than your insert on all four sides. You might be able to get away with a 1/8" border, but it could be difficult to align your product into the pouches with no more room than that. Large pouches are made standard to fit an 8-1/2" x 11" page or a legal sheet with 1/4" borders.

If you are laminating badges and plan to put a slot punch into the badge, you should size your insert card so the punch will not cut into the paper insert. This will prolong the life of the laminated badge, as any exposed paper can absorb moisture and cause the badge to eventually delaminate.

If you are printing a product to be laminated, it is usually best to choose a standard laminating pouch size first and then size your printed piece to fit the laminate. Although we can make custom size pouches for you, the standard sizes are more economical.

Laminate thickness is measured in mils (1/1000th of an inch). Large pouches come in 3, 5, 7, and 10 mil thicknesses. The small pouches are only available in 5, 7, and 10 mil thicknesses. It is customary to express the gauge of a pouch as the thickness of one of its sides; for example, a 10 mil pouch actually has a total thickness of 20 mils.

• Use 3 mil pouches for sheet protection. The finished product will still be very flexible.
• Use 5 or 7 mil to add a little rigidity to the laminated product.
• 10 mil pouches make great signs!
• If you are using small pouches to make up membership cards or I.D. badges, use a 7 or 10 mil pouch.

Gauge also tells you about the physical characteristics of your laminating pouch. For example, a 10 mil pouch can be 7/3, 6/4, or 4/6 construction. A 7/3 pouch has 7 mils of base plastic and 3 mils of adhesive, for a total of 10 mils per side. The 7/3 construction costs more than the others. A 4/6 pouch has a lot of adhesive, which may ooze out during the laminating process. Although all three of these constructions produce a 10 mil pouch, the 7/3 construction has more rigidity than the 4/6, and feels like a thicker pouch after it is sealed by lamination.

Here is a simple guideline for choosing the right gauge for large pouches:

• If you laminate a sheet of copy paper in a 3 mil 9" x 12" pouch, then hold it up by a corner, it will flop down over your hand.
• If you laminate a sheet of copy paper in a 5 mil pouch, then hold it up by a corner, it will bend down in a curve.
• If you laminate a sheet of copy paper in a 7 mil pouch, then hold it up by a corner, it will barely bend over.
• If you laminate a sheet of copy paper in a 10 mil pouch, then hold it up by a corner, it will stand up rigid.

Tip! You can make display counter cards and bulletin board pin-ups that don't flop over by printing on 60 lb cover paper, then laminating with a 5 (or maybe even a 3) mil pouch.

The purpose of a carrier is to protect your laminator's rollers from any adhesive that may ooze out of a heated laminating pouch. Using a carrier will prolong the life of your laminator. Not using a carrier can mean trouble!

A carrier is a folded piece of heavy paper with a special non-stick coating on the inside (shiny side). The coating prevents melted adhesive from sticking to the paper, and the carrier prevents adhesive from getting onto the rollers or other parts of the laminator.

A carrier also helps to keep your laminated product flat and even, while it is still hot and pliable, as it exits the laminator

A carrier can be used over and over, for hundreds of laminations. We provide several carriers with each box of laminating pouches.

We recommend always using a carrier, even with a laminator that has silicon rollers.

Theoretically, you could laminate a product 12" wide and hundreds of feet long, if you had laminate that long. But it's impractical to attempt it. The size of product you can laminate is usually constrained by the standard laminating pouch sizes that are available. The largest size available for a 12" laminator is a 12" x 18" pouch, which is commonly called quot;menu" size.

It is possible, although impractical, to use sheets of laminating film cut from a roll of laminate. It is very difficult to keep the loose sheets from wrinkling, however, and there's a strong likelihood that adhesive will stick to the laminator rollers.

Wide format pouch laminators are also available. Pouches as large as 37" x 49" are available for the Ledco XL44 and the D&K Expression 42.

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