Need help with looking for a Laminating Machine

[sidneykidney]

We're a small printing company running a Xerox 700. We are currently outsourcing our laminating (Business Cards, Book Cover, etc). We only spend around £1000 a year so it's not been worth looking at anything too high-end.

I've looked around at table top laminators, but it's very confusing that everything machine is called a 'laminator' even though some of them are 'Encapsulators'...I don't want an encapsulator!!!

Question?
1 - How do I know when I'm looking for a 'Laminator' instead of an encapsulator.
2 - Can anyone out there recommend a good Laminator (up to £2000). I will only be using it for short runs (up to 250 sheets per month)

 

[UK Printer]

Laminators

Laminators

Whatever you do, don't buy a GMP machine, ours was a bag of bolts, nothing but problems, we ended up selling it for scrap after 2 years running.

Now have an autobond system, absolute beast, built like a tank and runs like a dream, thats my 2 pence anyways.

You can pick a decent table top laminator up from D&K, heat shoe style, won't run OPP film but will laminate both sides at the same time, we used one many moons ago when we were starting out and it was great.

Tim

 

[sidneykidney]

You are the very first person who has told me that 'heat shoe style, won't run OPP film'...why has nobody told me this before???

I have had problems for about 6 months with exactly what you've just said.

Thanks

 

[kristianeyman]

take a look at the prolam lineup of laminators. they are heated roll, you can mount up to a 14" diameters of OPP, and built to last! i also have a xerox 240, same type of toner i believe and it runs good!!

 

[rainman23]

Hi, this is my first post on this forum. We have a xerox 700 and about 14 months ago bought a vivid matrix duo md650 laminator. They do two widths the 650 being the wider model. We didn't do much laminating as it was a hassle to send out for it. Since having it we use it 10 times as much as expected. Ok it's slow but for under 2k it's great. Single or double sided either 440mm laminate for sra3 work or 635mm rolls for upto a1 prints. We have done runs unto 500 sheets in one go, not ideal as it's slow but still much faster than waiting 3 days for a out of house service. It uses opp films which are very cheap if you buy the 1000 metre rolls. Only thing you need to watch is paper stocks. We mainly use xerox colotech range which is perfect, couldn't say about litho papers. Hope this has been helpful

 

[sidneykidney]

Hi, this is my first post on this forum. We have a xerox 700 and about 14 months ago bought a vivid matrix duo md650 laminator. They do two widths the 650 being the wider model. We didn't do much laminating as it was a hassle to send out for it. Since having it we use it 10 times as much as expected. Ok it's slow but for under 2k it's great. Single or double sided either 440mm laminate for sra3 work or 635mm rolls for upto a1 prints. We have done runs unto 500 sheets in one go, not ideal as it's slow but still much faster than waiting 3 days for a out of house service. It uses opp films which are very cheap if you buy the 1000 metre rolls. Only thing you need to watch is paper stocks. We mainly use xerox colotech range which is perfect, couldn't say about litho papers. Hope this has been helpful

Thank you all very much for your help in answering my question...that's what printplanet is all about. You've answered my question right to the point because you use exactly the same spec as me regarding machinery and paper. I also use colortech + which is a very good paper (especially for solids).
Q1. Do you have any problems with peeling when laminating solid areas?
Q2. which is the speed of your Matrix (feet/metres per minute)

 

[rainman23]

Thank you all very much for your help in answering my question...that's what printplanet is all about. You've answered my question right to the point because you use exactly the same spec as me regarding machinery and paper. I also use colortech + which is a very good paper (especially for solids).
Q1. Do you have any problems with peeling when laminating solid areas?
Q2. which is the speed of your Matrix (feet/metres per minute)

If you have large areas of solids you can turn the speed down and/or turn the heat up to max setting 140C. The machine has a max speed of 1.4m per minute (4 x SRA3 landscapes) we normally run at between 0.9m and 1.3m dependent on the job running.

 

[rainman23]

If you have large areas of solids you can turn the speed down and/or turn the heat up to max setting 140C. The machine has a max speed of 1.4m per minute (4 x SRA3 landscapes) we normally run at between 0.9m and 1.3m dependent on the job running.

One last point I forgot to mention, if you purchase one make sure you get the stand for it, don't buy without, its worth every penny. We bought ours through Duplo, the guy from Vivid came and done a demo for free before buying.