Laminate peeling after perfect binding (DigiBond and Konica Minolta toner)

[bjohnson1915]

We're trying to find the cause of an issue that only appears after perfect binding, and I'd appreciate some insight from anyone who has seen something similar...

Setup:
• Digital covers printed on a Konica Minolta AccurioPrint C3070L
• 10pt C1S cover stock
• 1.2 mil DigiBond gloss laminate
• Covers look excellent and the laminate fully adheres while flat
• Lamination is done with a Duplo DFL-500
• Perfect bound on a Duplo DPB-500 with Planatol Planamelt Pro Hybrid adhesive

Issue:
• No visible adhesion failure on flat covers
• After binding, bubbling sometimes appears at the hinge/crease
• In some cases, laminate later begins to peel from the outside trimmed edge (not at the hinge, but from the edge)
• Problem does not show up immediately... it appears after handling and flexing, sometimes weeks or months later

We previously switched from standard laminate to DigiBond specifically to address adhesion concerns with KM toner. Adhesion has been excellent since the switch, but a client is now reporting a recurrence of the peeling issue on recently produced titles.

1. Has anyone seen hinge bubbling combined with edge peeling only after binding?
2. Could the heat from the glue we're using re-activate or weaken laminate adhesive near the spine?
3. Could the scoring introduce enough stress to start micro-separation?
4. Has anyone seen cases where the laminate appears fully adhered until after trimming, and then begins peeling from the cut edges during handling?
5. Is there any known interaction between KM toner, Digibond laminate, and post-binding handling?

I'm trying to determine if this an issue with the settings on our laminator (temperature, speed, pressure), a scoring stress issue, a binder heat/tension issue, or some interaction of all three of those. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

 

[kslight]

It’s been a long time since I’ve had lamination issues (was on Xerox), but don’t do any perfect binding at the moment.

I remember we used to have to allow the prints to outgas for 24-48 hours prior to laminating.

I think the tests I would run would be to have some printed on a different machine as well as see if a vendor doing the laminating produces a different result. You could also see if you can reduce the amount of toner being put down without changing the image quality.

 

[Stickman42]

see if you can reduce the amount of toner being put down without changing the image quality.

This is what eventually gave us the most improvement with this issue. We set our total area coverage to no more than 240%. This in addition to running out laminator slooooooow.

Xerox prints with D&K SuperStik film.

 

[jwheeler]

We've been having the same issue with laminate peeling from our KM prints, though not for perfect binding. It mostly happens when there is heavy toner coverage. We use a DryLam HLA-2501 laminator. Like you, it will look great during the production phase, but it will peel later on. Following in case you or someone comes up with a solution.

 

[tngcas]

We previously switched from standard laminate to DigiBond specifically to address adhesion concerns with KM toner. Adhesion has been excellent since the switch, but a client is now reporting a recurrence of the peeling issue on recently produced titles.

1. Has anyone seen hinge bubbling combined with edge peeling only after binding?
2. Could the heat from the glue we're using re-activate or weaken laminate adhesive near the spine?
3. Could the scoring introduce enough stress to start micro-separation?
4. Has anyone seen cases where the laminate appears fully adhered until after trimming, and then begins peeling from the cut edges during handling?
5. Is there any known interaction between KM toner, Digibond laminate, and post-binding handling?

I'm trying to determine if this an issue with the settings on our laminator (temperature, speed, pressure), a scoring stress issue, a binder heat/tension issue, or some interaction of all three of those. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

We had similar issues: We used to do 12 month planners for people (primarily school planners) with laminated covers. Everything would look great for 3-6 months or so and then the complaints would come in about the laminate failing. It really depends on how much they abused the planners. We never solved the problem and ended up just switching to MGX Covers instead (these were coil bound). That isn't a great solution because on MGX paper if you don't uv coat them the toner will scratch off as people pull them in and out of their backpacks but it was the best we could do since we don't have an in-house UV Coater

 

[TJPrinter]

It took me a while to find a good combination of film, temperature, speed and a lot of pressure before I was happy with the Foliant laminator I had. The film that worked the best for me was Skandacor 1.6mil POLYpro Photo Gloss UltraGrip.

I came to the conclusion that to really get the best adhesion a pneumatic laminator is the way to go. They have large chrome rollers and provide significantly more pressure. Unfortunately, they were out of my price range for the lower volume of laminating I was doing.

 

[jonprintz]

Have you addressed this issue with Konica Minolta? What was their response? Do they recommend not film lamination over printed product from their machine?

 

[narseman]

I had that problem too. As been suggested.. Less toner thickness helps. And thinner lam film. Also I increased laminating temp, and slowed down the process to have glue bond properly. That can affect color, but generally not a big issue with GEC. It worked. Later went to a pneumatic laminator, increased pressure made the difference too. Side note: Many smaller laminators take time to heat up, so I would first run 10 or 20 scrap sheets, to allow the heat to build back after the first few sheets suck the heat out out of small rollers.