Lamination coming off near spine of the notebook (perfect bound)

[Diwakar]

Greetings everybody !

We are new into paper based stationery manufacturing and recently started manufacturing perfect bound notebooks. We are noticing that lamination is coming out from the area near the spine where the edge is formed when notebook cover is turned.

Please refer to the screenshots.
Here are the specifications:

Pinter: Konica Minolta C258
Cover: 280 GSM Matte Art Card
Lamination: 25 micron matte (both sides)
Lamination Temperature: 130 degrees

We are using an automatic perfect binding machine and 12 inch roll-to-roll lamination machine. We also manufacture wireO notebooks and on those, the lamination is working perfectly fine.

Please advise as we have already tried various temperatures on lamination machine and we also tried creasing the cover before putting into the binding machine.

Thank you very much for your time and advice.

 

[tngcas]

I've been researching the heck out of this lately (laminating covers) too as a precursor to getting into hardbound covers for spiral binding. A search on the forums turned up D&K Superstick Digital lamination as a possible solution. The explanation seems to be that the glue on the lamination has to penetrate through the toner and bond the the paper underneath in order to stay "stuck" which is tricky on full coverage prints. They're sending me samples to try.

I'm really interested in hearing how other ppl have solved this problem.

 

[Stickman42]

Delamination. We've been contending with this for years, using SuperStik film for a long time. We've had to run our laminator REAL slow to achieve 99% success. With more toner on the sheet, there's more of the possibility for the film to separate from the sheet in the same area you're seeing it.

 

[DYP]

Nobelus sells a SuperFlat™ Laminate DigiBOND. Apply at 250F and I have not seen any de-lamination problem.

 

[Diwakar]

Thank you @tngcas, @Stickman42 and @DYP for your tips. I appreciate that a quick solution would be to use the super stick film. However, the super stick lamination film is not available here (we are based in New Delhi, India) .

I was wondering, if there is another way to avoid de lamination.

PS:
We tried firing the heat gun on and near the area where de-lamination happened. The results were better, but the process would be very time consuming as we are talking about a job card with more than 100s of sheets.

 

[Stickman42]

How much lamination are you doing? We have found that wiping each sheet with an alcohol-soaked cotton pad is a workable worst-case solution. It seems to take the “edge” off and allow the film’s adhesive to penetrate the toner better. Not practical for high volume obviously.

 

[Alith7]

We had this problem with one run of perfect bound books we did a few years ago.
What we figured out was that laminate has a cure time. Our laminator recommended a minimum of 24-48 hours to let the laminate set completely before doing anything to it. We have followed that rule ever since and have very little problems with our laminate now.

Also, if you are running digital, make sure that you are getting "digital" laminate. the glue works a little differently and cuts through the toner better.

 

[Diwakar]

@Stickman42 , yes you are right, wiping with alco-swabs would be too time consuming when we are laminating 100-150 sheets of 12x18 inches

@Alith7 thank you for your reply, however, we cannot set 24-48 hours as our manufacturing is based on "make to order" system. And, we have 24 hours fulfilment time.

However, researching some more, I found that gloss lamination (25 micron) performs better than the matte lamination (27 micron)

 

[Alith7]

@Diwakar I'm not sure what to tell you then. Other than to let the covers sit as long as possible (maybe overnight).

 

[Diwakar]

Hi everyone,

We finally found it !
Here how we did it:
1. We ran the art cards at 125 degrees celsius and at speed of 5
2. We laminated only one side (the front side) and not on the back side
3. We reversed the creasing, that is, the curvature was made on the back side rather than on the front side

The results were great, only the creasing is seen when the card is bent and lamination is not coming out (just a tiny tiny bit).

 

[lclclc]

Problem is with the Digital Print + Thermal Film, Solid digital print covers the whole surface area therefore thermal film doesn't react well with it, we normally send it to a shop using waterbase glue matt lamination.

 

[Alith7]

Glad you found the solution!

 

[narseman]

Greetings everybody !

We are new into paper based stationery manufacturing and recently started manufacturing perfect bound notebooks. We are noticing that lamination is coming out from the area near the spine where the edge is formed when notebook cover is turned.

Please refer to the screenshots.
Here are the specifications:

Pinter: Konica Minolta C258
Cover: 280 GSM Matte Art Card
Lamination: 25 micron matte (both sides)
Lamination Temperature: 130 degrees

We are using an automatic perfect binding machine and 12 inch roll-to-roll lamination machine. We also manufacture wireO notebooks and on those, the lamination is working perfectly fine.

Please advise as we have already tried various temperatures on lamination machine and we also tried creasing the cover before putting into the binding machine.

Thank you very much for your time and advice.

That temperature seems to be low to me. My low temp film runs at 220 deg F. Also, when laminating toner printed materials, you cannot use cheap lamination.. You need a lamination glue designed for the purpose. Something like Digibond, or Ultragrip.. (Nobelus) Various companies have similar products, usually with "Digital" in the name..
On those flat covers that appear perfectly fine, try peeling the lam off from a cut edge. I suspect it will peel off quite easily. I might be wrong, but it ought to take most of the image off with it if it's stuck down properly. If it does come off too easily, that means it will begin to peel and look bad in normal use, after a little while.

 

[Stickman42]

@Diwakar - Although you did say in your original post that you are laminating 2 sides, I assumed (incorrectly) that since you're perfect binding, you were only laminating the outside of the cover. Most traditional binding glues (EVA, non-PUR) have a difficult time adhering to film lam. Going to one side lam should be a step in the right direction.

Gloss film performing (adhering) better than matte? Yes, generally. The base material for matte does not allow heat to transfer through to the adhesive as easily as gloss base material, plus matte has a heavier layer of adhesive, which requires more heat and time to melt properly. This was the explanation given to me by the film manufacturer, D&K.