Lamination Innovation

In-plants are getting new business thanks to their laminating capabilities. Find out how to pick the laminator that's right for you.

By W. Eric Martin

You hardly need to be convinced that lamination is a good thing. After all, bringing an extra layer of professionalism to a job automatically places both you and your client in a better light.

But what should you look for in lamination equipment? If you listen to the experts, you want to think big. Really big.

"Due to the increase in popularity of 44˝-wide photo-like images, the majority of lamination equipment being sold is wide-format," contends Sol M. Gnatowsky, vice-president of sales and marketing at Coda, Inc. "I always advise people new to lamination to go with a wider machine because you can use it to laminate and mount small images just as well as large ones. Having a small laminator might mean that you still lose the job or have to send it out, so bigger is always better."

Cindy Pilch, product manager with GBC Films Group, says wide-format laminators are a natural choice given the current printing market.

"The more companies print wide-format in-house due to the lower cost of wide-format printers, the more they also see the need to mount and laminate this work," she says.

Joe Howell, production supervisor for general support services at the University of Alaska Anchorage, is a perfect example of the wide-format scenario described by Pilch and Gnatowsky.

"We purchased a Ledco Digital 42˝ laminator to complement our HP Designjet 5000," says Howell. "We had intended to laminate and mount items produced in-house for the departments on campus that are our main clients, but we now use the laminator for state and non-profit agencies and for personal customers, such as faculty, staff and students. More and more customers are coming in to have personal posters or artwork laminated and/or mounted."

Howell says the laminator paid for itself within six months of installation, and to date has an ROI of more than 700 percent.

"It's a great revenue generator," he declares. "We're tackling new projects that would not have been attempted before."

In addition to laminating posters and artwork for individuals, Howell says his department has been doing a lot of foam core mounting, such as for signs at functions held by the University Relations department and for accolades and wall-of-fame displays across campus.

"We've been going through major renovations at the university with offices and departments temporarily moving to facilitate the process," says Howell. "We produced several hundred feet of foam core signage, including directional signage, department and room numbers, and name plates to hang around campus to guide students and individuals to the new locations. In most places, the signage looked so nice, it's become a permanent fixture."

Schools Love Laminating

Other university and school in-plants are also doing a lot of laminating, something that has caught the eye of laminator vendors.

"In shear numbers, the largest market for roll laminators is schools, for the lamination of posters, flashcards and so forth," says Alan Parkhill, president of Banner American Products. "But print shops also laminate menus, place mats, POP displays, book covers and wide-format applications, such as trade show graphics."

Another product that's growing in popularity, says Coda's Gnatowsky, is the lamination of fleet graphics.

Your potential menu of products will determine which features are most important in a new laminator. Buying a machine with both top- and bottom-heated rollers will allow you to encapsulate products—that is, laminate both sides of a printed piece while still leaving a border. Laminating the back side of a wide-format foam core piece will minimize curling.

The Hot and the Cold

Speaking of heated rollers, lamination runs both hot and cold, with each type having benefits and drawbacks.

"Hot lamination takes a bit more knowledge and effort to run properly, but it provides a nice cost advantage," says GBC's Pilch. "As for cold, in addition to being easier to run, cold lamination may provide better adhesion for heavily saturated prints."

Parkhill also notes that cold film comes in a variety of finishes.

Gnatowsky points out that hot lamination is the only way to go if you must roll up prints for delivery.

"You'll have no delaminating or tunneling in a rolled image because thermal laminate places a mechanical as well as a chemical bond," he says.

On the other hand, cold lamination is ideal for vinyl media as thermal laminates will melt, stretch or wrinkle vinyl.

"A polyester thermal laminate is more stable than vinyl, which means it will remain rigid outdoors while the vinyl will shrink, thereby causing the image to wrinkle over time," says Gnatowsky. "For vinyl, we recommend using a pressure-sensitive overlaminate that has the same characteristics as the printed media."

Signed, Sealed, Ready for Delivery?

Surprisingly, the need for speed—the feature that's driven many of the advancements made in printing technology—hasn't been a strong factor in the world of lamination.

"Except in the very high-end machines, most laminators are still running at about the same speed," says Parkhill. "In wide-format, speed isn't really an issue as the laminators can still run faster than ink-jet printers."

In place of speed, you might look at the variety of different films a laminator can accept or the machine's ability to both mount and laminate pieces, separately or at the same time.

"Not all laminators can do both," notes Gnatowsky.

"You don't want to pay for bottom heat if you'll be using only pressure-sensitive over-laminates," advises Pilch, "but in general I recommend that a print provider get the most versatile model he can afford so that he can handle the various applications he is likely to encounter in his marketplace. Otherwise, he may end up spending more in the long run to add more capability."

Safety Considerations

Other considerations might be the thickness of the material that a machine can handle or the presence of infrared shutoff sensors that can improve operator safety.

"The force that it takes to run laminate through the rollers is between 30-50 PSI (pounds per square inch)," says Gnatowsky. "That's enough to crush the bones in your hand if it went through the rollers. All safety features on a laminator are very important."

All vendors provide training, whether hands-on or on video, but Pilch advises new users to experiment beyond what they encounter in the first training class.

"Not only will they provide better output, but they'll reduce waste and learn other money- and time-saving tricks," she says.

Saving time and money while turning out beautiful products? Sounds like a customer-pleasing proposition you can't pass up.

Find Out More

American Binding www.americanbindingco.com

Banner American Products www.banam.com

Coda www.codamount.com

D&K www.dkgroup.com

GBC Films Group www.gbcconnect.com

Graphic Laminating www.graphiclaminating.com

Ledco www.ledcoinc.com

Seal Graphics Americas www.sealbrands.com

Southwest Plastic Binding www.swplastic.com