Laminating Digital Prints - What sticks?

[tngcas]

This is my second attempt to solve this problem. Previous attempts were with Xerox printers so I thought I'd retry.
I've never been able to successfully find a lamination that will stick to digitally printed vinyl sheets that is then cut out (think stickers).
They always delaminate unless there is a clear quarter-inch "lamination to lamination" border around the print. I can't get single-sided lamination to work or any cut lamination - even with normal cardstock. Any place where there is significant toner cover will delaminate with even moderate usage or right away..

If we wanted to product stickers in-house using our digital printers then they really need to be laminated to prevent the toner from scratching off. Is there another way to make stickers or should I look at getting something ink-based and just give up on using our canon printers for that?


Printed equpment.
-- Printing on 12in x 18in Vinyl Label Sheets using Canon printers.
-- Problem: Toner scratches off the Vinyl Label sheets if it's not protected.
-- Solution: Theoretically would be to laminate them.

Laminating Equipment:
We used to have a roll laminator but we got rid of it so now I just have one of those 13in wide Akiles Pro-Lam laminators There's no way to talk higherups into letting me get another laminator unless I can prove that they won't delaminate first. We got rid of the roll laminator because we couldn't solve the delamination problem with digitally printed items. The roll laminator was taking up too much space and we had outsourced our laminating jobs. Now were only accepting pouch lamination orders anyways because of the lamination problem.

 

[chrisio]

I use a laminate called tiger bond in the UK. It's sticks to almost everything I have laminated with the exception of solid blacks. I set the laminator to a higher than normal temperature and ramp the pressure up. Haven't had a failure in a while. No idea why it doesn't work with the solid blacks but it fails every time in short order.

 

[tngcas]

I use a laminate called tiger bond in the UK. It's sticks to almost everything I have laminated with the exception of solid blacks. I set the laminator to a higher than normal temperature and ramp the pressure up. Haven't had a failure in a while. No idea why it doesn't work with the solid blacks but it fails every time in short order.

The lamination probably can't penetrate through the thicker toner layer - solid black would be four layers of toner right?

I'll be honest, all my "test prints" are solid black because I figure if I can get it to work with solid black then it'll work on everything else. Maybe I should be testing other patterns and just be honest with customers that solid black won't work... it's a thought.

 

[Stickman42]

We 1-side laminate laser printed book covers on 10 pt. C1S. Not vinyl, I know. We use D&K SuperStik film, and have been doing so for many years. Some covers do have heavy toner coverage. Over the years, we've seen delamination where the spine folds are on the front and back of perfect bound books. The things we've done to counter this problem include:
- verifying and adjusting the laminating roll temperature
- adjusting the pressure of the lamination roll
- slow the laminating machine speed way down
- adjust the total ink coverage of the prints to 240% (not one customer has noticed or complained)

We are having great success these days.

We are currently running an Iridesse, and used Versants for the 7 years prior.

 

[TJPrinter]

I could never get the hot roll lamination to adhere to vinyl very good. I replaced the hot roll laminate with adhesive backed laminate and problem solved. Depending on how many sheets you need to laminate, you could use a cold roll laminator or buy another hot roll laminator and keep the heat off or even use a low heat setting for assistance in bonding to the vinyl.

A pneumatic hot roll laminator can solve a lot of adhesion problems but I don't think even that would help with the digital vinyl.

 

[tngcas]

I could never get the hot roll lamination to adhere to vinyl very good. I replaced the hot roll laminate with adhesive backed laminate and problem solved. Depending on how many sheets you need to laminate, you could use a cold roll laminator or buy another hot roll laminator and keep the heat off or even use a low heat setting for assistance in bonding to the vinyl.

A pneumatic hot roll laminator can solve a lot of adhesion problems but I don't think even that would help with the digital vinyl.

The pro lams let you cold lamination but I have the same problem with them that I do with hot lamination. The laminate peals right off but I admit I haven't experimented with different brands to see if one would work. I grabbed a roll of the DK superstick yesterday (will arrive tomorrow). I'm going to cut a piece off the roll and run it through the pro-lam and see if it'll stick. Shrug, maybe it'll work. The roll was less than $50 so I'm fine with experimenting with it.

 

[YourCastle]

i've never had success unless I edge seal.

If I i need flush, i have to go with a liquid lamination or UV or something, but have always had to send that to another vendor as I never had the volume for liquid lam

but following as I'd like to learn more

 

[cqb1988]

toner usually sticks to vinyl very well, no need to laminate, unless you are using inkjet coated or indigo primed vinyl.

if you have to laminate, I strongly recommend getting a pneumatic pressure machine, I use regular adhesive film, sticks pretty well on my Ricoh toner. I had used a few different spring pressure laminators, none of them worked well even with super stick film.

 

[J_DVRS]

Assuming you are printing on an image press, you can try to jack up the fuser temp by lying to machine and telling it the stock is 351 gsm. Turn side fan levels all the way up to prevent jamming. If the stock is heavier than 65# cover, I would be happy to run a few test sheets for you on my UV coater just PM me if interested.