Pouch Laminator Quality

[jpfulton248]

Question: Kind of a difficult question but what determines whether a laminator will produce professional looking results?

Background: We have a small pouch laminator by Jackson Hirsch. We never use it for anything we're actually selling and have never tried anything with it except the standard 3mil gloss. I'm doing a small job for a friend that would benefit from lamination. I want to do a matte lamination with a flush cut. I tried one out and it looks horrible. There is not question what we have is not commercial grade but what is the minimum equipment I need to pass off a product as professional?

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

We are at this point as well. We have an Akiles Pro-Lam Plus 330 pouch laminator and can't get it to run well for more than a year before we replace it. It has issues with sealing the paper properly, and when you turn the temperature up it starts to bubble. The is only noticeable on jobs where there is a black solid area on the print, which coincidentally is a job we run often. We'd like to pursue different options for pouch laminators, but I think we have the highest end pouch laminator around. We use 5 mil gloss laminate from Oregon Laminations and also Southwest Binding and Laminating.

I think to answer your question, the ability to adjust the roller pressure and accurate control over roller temperature is going to be the biggest factor for a laminator, but these two features appear to be missing from all pouch laminators that I know of.

 

[jpfulton248]

Thank you. Seems like every time I post on any subject that I'm struggling with you pop up and have had direct experience and knowledge about it. Appreciate it. Pretty sure that answers my question. A roll laminator with pressure and temperature controls is what I should be looking for.