5 Must-Have Features in a Thermal Lamination Film Manufacturer

TLDR

If you want to learn more, please visit our website.

Trying to choose the perfect laminating machine can be overwhelming, to say the least. Pouch or roll? Hot or cold? Automatic or manual? Not to mention the different types of film and supplies. The questions can be endless. In this guide, we’ll cover the essentials of laminating machines and supplies so you can ditch the overwhelm and make an informed decision that aligns with your needs.

First impressions count when it comes to professional documents, and the quality of your presentations can make or break a deal. This is where the power of document lamination can’t be denied. Whether you’re safeguarding cherished student artwork, enhancing the vibrancy of your graphic display, or making your restaurant menus withstand the test of time (and spills!), a laminating machine can elevate your projects to their highest potential. But with so many options at your fingertips, how do you find a machine that perfectly meets your needs?

We’ll give you all the essentials you need to know in this guide, covering:

• The types of laminating machines
• How to choose the right laminating machine
• The lamination process explained
• How to choose the right laminating supplies
• Common applications of laminating machines

Types of Laminating Machines

So, how do you choose the right laminating machine? It all starts with knowing the type of machine you need and what features to consider. Let’s take a deeper look at laminating machines so you can make an informed decision.

Types of Laminating Machines

No matter the project, there’s a laminating machine for you. Each has its capabilities and applications, so a successful project starts with choosing the right machine. Available lamination machines include:

• Pouch laminator: Pouch laminators are small laminators that use pre-sized laminating pouches to encase your document, then seal the pouch with heat and pressure. Offices, classrooms, and small businesses typically use them to laminate small to medium-sized documents.
• Roll laminator: Also known as school laminators due to their popularity in the educational industries, roll laminators heat and press two rolls of laminating film together to apply laminate to larger-format, high-volume materials and documents. They can laminate materials ranging from 1.5-10 mil thick, making them ideal for educational materials, packaging, book covers, posters, photos, and even mounting boards.
• Automatic laminator: Automatic laminators get rid of those inefficient days of feeding, laminating, and trimming each document by hand. They allow you to choose a setting, press a button, and do something else while it laminates and trims the sheets for you. That’s why they’re so popular in high-volume industries like manufacturing or publishing where high-speed performance and consistency are so important.
• Wide format laminator: A wide format laminator is made for laminating film rolls anywhere from 38 inches to 65 inches wide and up to 10 mil thick. Some ultra-wide format laminators can even handle documents 80 inches wide and higher. They’re perfect for industries like architecture, engineering, signage, and advertising, where businesses frequently produce large documents and large-format displays.
• Cold laminator: Unlike thermal laminators, cold laminators use pressure-sensitive film to laminate sensitive materials like photographs, vinyl, and digital prints. 
• Foil laminator: These special laminators are specially made for use with specialized laminating foil to make inked sections of a project glimmer. They use pressure and heat to adhere the foil to the project, making them perfect for any business seeking to elevate the look of certificates, business cards, packaging, and more.
• Mounting board laminator: These laminating machines can use both lamination film and mounting boards to protect precious photographs and displays from damage and wear and tear. They’re available as hot, cold, electric, manual, standard, and wide format machines so any school, business, sign shop, or print shop can laminate their photos no matter the size.
• Single-side laminator: A single-side laminator is a specialized machine for use with single-side laminating film. It allows you to save money by only laminating one side of prints, maps, posters, book covers, and more.

How to Choose the Right Laminating Machine

Once you’ve narrowed down the type of laminator you need for your material, there are several considerations for choosing the right machine to get the job done: 

• Ease of use: A laminator should be intuitive and easy to set up and operate, with clear settings and controls.
• Document size: Make sure the laminator can accommodate the size of all your documents. It’s best to base the size you pick on the size of the largest item you plan to laminate.
• Laminating volume: Consider how much and how often you’ll be laminating. If you’re running a busy print shop that laminates various items often, an automatic roll machine designed for heavier use would keep up with the pace much better than a lighter desktop pouch laminator.
• Film thickness: Different laminators handle different film thicknesses. Thicker films offer more protection, but the machine must be able to handle their heft. For example, a school using 1.5 mil school film would be okay with a school laminator, while a hospital laminating signs and ID badges would need a more robust roll laminator.
• Speed and efficiency: Time is of the essence if you’re laminating multiple items. Look for a laminator that warms up quickly and processes items at a speed that keeps your workflow smooth and efficient.
• Maintenance and durability: Your laminator should be built to last and easy to maintain for maximum reliability and cost-effectiveness. Pay attention to the machine’s build quality, availability of replacement parts, and level of customer service support.
• Brand quality: It’s best to opt for a laminator from a reputable brand. Research different brands, read reviews, and consider the level of support and customer service to get the best quality for your money. Investing in quality may have a higher upfront cost, but it’s well worth the cost when you consider the efficiency, satisfaction, reliability, durability,  and peace of mind you’ll enjoy. A brand like Spiral is a top-choice for pouch laminators.
• Budget: How much a laminating machine costs can vary widely based on its capacity, features, and durability. Always weigh the initial investment against your laminating needs and expected volume, considering not only the purchase price but the cost of essential supplies and accessories. Aim for a laminator that offers the best mix of necessary features and reliability so you get the most bang for your buck.

There are also some important precautions to take for successful lamination, including using the correct pouch or film settings, aligning projects precisely, allowing the machine to warm up completely, and doing test runs before the final project.

Laminating Machine Features to Consider 

After evaluating your project needs, you also need to compare what your desired laminators offer to make sure you get the most value for your purchase. Other common features to look out for include:

• Adjustable speed control
• Laminating speed
• Adjustable temperature control
• Capability to do hot and cold laminating
• Auto shut-off/standby mode
• Reverse
• Built-in cutter
• Rolls vs heat plates
• Memory capabilities

Choosing the Right Laminating Supplies

The lamination film, method, and supplies you use can make or break your lamination processes, so it’s essential to understand these factors. When you know exactly what to use with your project and how to use it, you can choose the right supplies for success.

Types of Lamination Film

There are several types of lamination film, each with its own applications and type of material it can laminate. The determining factor of a lamination film is the type of adhesive it uses because the adhesive is what gets applied to the paper to adhere to the protective laminate layer. 

What you use to print on your paper determines what adhesive is best for your application. So it’s very important to choose the right type of film to make sure your laminate’s adhesive is compatible with your material. The six types of laminating materials are:

Standard Laminating Film

This is a regular monopolymer film with the highest melt temperature range of 260-290 degrees. Standard laminating film is generally referred to as “school film” because schools often use it due to its low price. It’s available in thicknesses of 1.5 mil and 3 mil, and 1.5 mil is the most common thickness for school use.

Premium Laminating Film

Premium laminating film is a copolymer film, which means it has a specialized blend of adhesives to create a more aggressive bond. It has a lower melting temperature of 230 degrees, so it typically runs at 220-270 degrees in a laminator. It’s one of the most popular films for businesses thanks to its strong sticking power and wide thickness range of 1.5 mil to 10 mil. This makes it perfect for various uses such as:

• Point-of-purchase displays
• Presentation folders
• Video boxes
• Book covers/jackets
• Menus

Color Bond Laminating Film

This premium-grade film is compatible with toner-based copies or graphics, so it’s commonly used to laminate digital printing color copies. It has the strongest adhesive and a wide thickness range of 1.5 mil to 10 mil. 

Color Bond laminating film can laminate various types of media, from paper to plastics to vinyl. It’s also available in both matte and gloss and has a very low melting temperature of 185 degrees. It is typically run at 185-230 degrees depending on the laminator speed.

Gold-Lam Wide Format Film

This premium polyester base film is designed for large documents that are between 38 to 65 inches wide. Gold-Lam wide format film comes in one thickness of 5 mil and is typically used for graphics used with inkjet, solvent-based, or latex-based printers. It’s typically laminated at lower speeds around four feet per minute and a low melting temperature of 185-230 degrees. 

It can laminate a wide variety of media, from paper to plastics to vinyl, but it’s typically used for thermal laminating on paper-based graphics. This film doesn’t have UV inhibitors to prevent fading from sun exposure.

Platinum-Lam Wide Format Film

This low-melt film is the same as Gold-Lam film, but it has added UV inhibitors in the adhesive layer to reduce color fading from UV light. Unlike the Gold-Lam film, Platinum-Lam wide format film is available in gloss, satin, and matte finishes and thicknesses of 3 mil, 5 mil, and 10 mil in three-inch cores. 

Pressure-Sensitive Adhesive (PSA) Film

Also known as cold adhesive film or pressure-sensitive mounting film, this film is used with wide-format applications for vinyl-based graphics. PSA film is most commonly used in the sign industry to mount graphics for display. You can precoat mounting boards or create large decals by applying the film to the back of the print. They may even be used for creating window graphics, floor graphics, outdoor signage, and removable applications.

Single-Side Film

This thin, polypropylene (OPP)-based or nylon-based film is commonly used for book covers, packaging, posters, photos, and maps.  It is only used with a specialized single-side laminator and is available in thicknesses of 1.1 mil, 1.3 mil, and 1.5 mil.

Hot vs. Cold Lamination

Hot lamination uses a combination of pressure and heat to adhere laminate adhesive to an item. It’s typically used for polyester-based, OPP-based, and nylon-based film for two-sided lamination.

On the other hand, cold lamination only applies pressure to adhere a pressure-sensitive adhesive to laminate documents. It uses a special vinyl lamination film to protect heat-sensitive materials like photographs, vinyl, and inkjet-printed documents. 

Essential Laminating Accessories and Tools

Last but certainly not least, you need the right accessories and tools to round your laminating process out and provide that perfect finish. Some essential tools you’ll need include:

• Pouch carriers: Pouch carriers are a must when your laminating pouches are smaller than your laminator’s maximum width (which is pretty much all the time). Adhesive can seep out of the pouch and make your rollers sticky in these cases. Pouch carriers encapsulate your pouch and document to protect them. They’re available in thicknesses between 3 mil to 10 mil.
• Trimmer/Cutter: If your laminator doesn’t have a built-in trimmer, this is an essential tool for cutting lamination and other plastics. It’s available as a cutter bar or a rotary-style cutter and can handle material more than 100 inches long.
• Carts and stands: If you’re in an office or business and struggle to find the perfect place to keep all your laminating equipment and supplies together without taking up too much countertop space, laminator carts and stands are a necessity. These workspaces come with plenty of space and storage areas for heavy laminating machines and materials. They’re also built at a universally comfortable working height so you can store and use your laminator with ease.
• Cleaners: It’s easy for laminator rollers to get dirtied and clogged with adhesive and dust particles, especially if you use your machine regularly. Cleaning accessories like laminator roller cleaning bars or erasers, liquid cleaners, cleaning boards, and tack dusk removers make keeping your rollers clean and functioning their best a breeze. 
• Roll lifters: High-volume print shops and businesses that print extra-wide materials often have to store and move extremely heavy laminate rolls. Roll lifters make lifting and moving heavy laminate or fabric rolls safe and easy, with many able to lift rolls weighing almost half a ton!
• Dust covers: Dust and debris can accumulate in your laminator’s mechanisms and sneak onto your adhesive, gunking up your rolls and lowering the quality of your projects. Dusk covers protect your machine when it’s not in use so you can laminate with confidence.

Industry-Specific Applications

Laminating allows a variety of industries to protect and preserve important documents, boost their aesthetics, and demonstrate their commitment to quality and professionalism. Consider some industry-specific applications for lamination.

Restaurant Menus

Restaurant menus go through a lot of handling, dropping, abrasions, and spilling. Lamination can protect them from damage and wear and tear while elevating their look. Not to mention the need to clean between customers.

Educational Materials and Tools

Durability is key in classrooms where little hands frequently use materials. Laminating is a teacher’s best friend for making materials last longer and withstand the rigors of a hands-on learning environment. 

Teachers benefit from preserving documents with lamination, protecting anything from precious student artwork to reusable teaching aids and flashcards. Teachers can even use foil laminators to make dazzling wall posters or for students to make beautiful projects like cards for friends and family.

Healthcare Materials

Cleanliness is paramount in medical environments like hospitals and clinics. Laminated items are easy to sanitize, helping to maintain hygienic standards. As a result, the healthcare industry often uses lamination for materials such as signs, instructions, IDs, and more.

Retail Displays

Retail businesses often have fast-paced environments with many people coming and going and touching things. Laminated point-of-sale displays, loyalty cards, and price tags are resistant to damage and more durable, maintaining a clean, professional look that enhances the shopping experience and brand image.

Graphic Design and Advertising

Graphic design and advertising is all about making banners, posters, and signage pop and wow the viewer. Laminating adds gloss or matte finishes that do just that. But it does more. It also protects them from environmental factors like sunlight, heat, and rain so they remain vibrant for a long time.

Promotional Real Estate Materials

Real estate companies often use laminating to create a polished look that withstands the elements for marketing materials, property listings, outdoor displays, take-home brochures, and more.

Government and Public Services

Government sectors often use laminating for papers such as vehicle registrations and informational pamphlets so they can withstand frequent use and handling. They also use wide-format laminating for educational signage.

These are just some examples of industries that tap into the benefits of laminating documents. It can be used by virtually any industry to safeguard and prolong the life of important documents, making it perfect no matter what you need.

GT New Material supply professional and honest service.

Shop Our Supplies Today

With the right machine, tools, and supplies, you can create beautiful, well-protected documents that stand out and last the test of time. Here at Binding101, we provide high-quality laminating machines and supplies so you can create the best project for your unique needs.

Are you ready to start your laminating journey on the right foot? 

The majority of offices, schools and commercial premises in the UK use laminate technology primarily to protect and embellish key documents for presentation and display purposes, but it is also possible to laminate many other types of documents (as well as non-paper items and surfaces).

Lamination typically involves attaching a plastic cover or wrapper to the paperwork. This is normally to protect it from damage and ensure it remains in good condition for longer. The document's plastic coating can also enhance colour and improve presentability. In addition, it provides a wipe-clean surface for use with dry-wipe pens.

Many types of laminate machines are available nowadays. These machines range from small, inexpensive desktop models for office use to more costly, extensive industrial varieties. Top-of-the-range machines typically accommodate a wide variety of document sizes and temperature settings. They may also include multiple sets of rollers for a perfect finish in applications where quality is key.

In general, the majority of laminating machines fall into three main categories:

• Film Laminators - The top layer of these laminators is incorporated into the laminator mechanism itself, so they use two separate layers of laminating film. A bottom layer of film is placed on the items and they are fed into the machine. Hot rollers align and press down the top layer as they pass through the machine. Many (or even larger format) items need to be processed quickly in large-scale production environments and this type of laminator is often the most flexible
• Pouch Laminators - This is the most commonly used type of desktop-type laminating machine on a day-to-day basis, and it can be found in a wide range of standard office environments. Prior to feeding a document into a clear plastic pouch or wallet lined with adhesive, pouch laminators must be heated to optimal temperatures. The sealed cover is then formed by pressing the two together under hot rollers
• Cold Laminators - Non-heated cold laminators are ideal for laminating sensitive items that cannot be exposed to high temperatures during the lamination process, such as vinyl, carbon copies, and certain types of photographs. They work by using pressure to seal an adhesive plastic pouch or film around the item. However, these machines are typically smaller and less expensive, and the pouches used can be significantly more expensive than those for hot laminators

In this guide, we’ll look at some of the more common types of machines, lamination pouches and accessories available from UK suppliers. We’ll help you decide what to look for in a laminator, and choose which sorts might be the most useful across a range of particular applications, environments and workloads.

Strictly speaking, lamination technically refers to the process of applying a plastic cover to the surface face of a document or other item. Two-sided lamination, where the plastic cover forms a complete seal all around the document on both the front and reverse sides, is more properly known as ‘encapsulation’.

However, most people use ‘laminating’ as a somewhat catch-all term to mean any form of heat-based plastic coating process, including full sealing of documents in purpose-designed double-sided pouches.

There are numerous types of laminators available for handling different sorts of documents, pouches and workloads. In this section, we’ll take a brief look at some of the more common varieties found in many homes and offices today, and which sorts might be best suited to which type of production environment.

A3 Laminator

If you need to protect and enhance large print materials like posters or signage for display purposes, A3 laminators are a great option. Usually available in thermal film varieties, both single and double-sided, they offer more flexibility in terms of operating temperature, workpiece size, and item orientation. This makes them perfect for creating sealed, protected documents for public display, such as exhibition graphics, public signage, or window dressings.

A4 Laminator

A4 laminators are the most common format found in schools, offices, and retail environments. They’re particularly widely used for producing report covers, multiple ID or business cards, photo montages, checklists or instruction guides, wipe-clean rotas, menus and other reusable documents that need to stay looking presentable even in constant handling.

Most A4 desktop laminators tend to be the pouch variety, and rely on heated rollers to seal purpose-bought adhesive plastic wallets around the documents in question. More economical varieties usually incorporate a single pair of rollers that pass the paperwork through the laminating machine, while higher-end versions might feature multiple sets of rollers to ensure a cleaner finish with greatly reduced risk of bubbling or misalignment.

Office Use

The key decisions you’ll need to make when choosing a suitable laminator for office use are what size to go for, and also how often you’ll likely be using it. Both A3 and A4 varieties can come at a wide range of prices and specs, but for the most part, the more expensive versions will offer one very key feature over more cost-effective models: speed.

While the initial investment in a top-of-the-line laminator can be much higher than for a budget brand, it may actually work out saving you money in the long run if you’re not constantly having to wait around for slower laminating processes and ramp-up times, or frequently having to re-run the process due to a higher incidence of misalignments and bubbling that you tend to get with very cheap laminators.

Many models intended for more intensive day-to-day school or office use come with handy time-saving features such as built-in memory functions, meaning you don’t have to re-programme the machine each time you want to use it.

Industrial/Heavy Use

Again, the key decisions when looking to buy heavy duty or industrial laminators will generally come down to the degree of flexibility required, and the intensity of use you expect it to undergo. Heavy duty laminating machines can be built to withstand near-constant use, but you can expect to pay a premium for this sort of durability and consistency of performance.

If you’ll need to laminate multiple items on a daily basis, especially at a high rate per hour, certain higher-end or heavy-duty laminator machines are built to work faster and harder than others, producing superior quality laminations at a much quicker output rate.

Another key consideration will be how long you want your laminated items to last, as this will impact on the type of lamination pouches or films you should buy, and thus ultimately on what sort of machine you’ll need to meet your production demands.

Hot and Cold

When it comes to choosing whether to buy a hot or a cold lamination machine, the key differences between the two (apart from the obvious!) really come down to the types of documents you’ll be working with.

Many people feel that, for short-run or occasional use, a cold lamination machine is sufficient for their needs - and in fact cold laminating can result in a nicer-looking document for certain types of ink or printed materials, as the lack of heat makes it far less likely that any running, blurring or colour variance will appear in the end result. Additionally, they tend to rely on heavier pressure than heated roller versions, meaning that there can be less likelihood of bubbling with high-quality machines.

Hot lamination, on the other hand, tends to be a better choice for consistency and durability over more frequent daily use, particularly in environments where speed and repeatability is more important than flawless finishes. The pouches intended for hot lamination use also tend to be considerably cheaper and more widely available than cold versions.

Provided you have a clear understanding of what material and document types are suitable for hot roller laminating, it’s a very straightforward and quick process to protect and embellish many documents in a short space of time with a heat-based machine. Higher-end models also offer numerous additional features for batch-processing, temperature adjustment, programmable memory functions and more.

Laminating Photos

A quick word on laminating photographs: it’s one of the more common intended uses for laminating machines generally, but one that many users tend to be (understandably!) worried about.

While photograph lamination is usually done to help preserve the picture for longer, there’s always a perceived element of risk when you can’t easily replace the photo should anything go wrong. The main point to note when laminating photographs is that, as with all laminating machines, higher roller counts will give you better and more consistent results, with far less chance of misfeed or bubbling.

The most budget-conscious laminators will generally come with two rollers, and these can be somewhat inconsistent - far better to go with four-roller models for documents that matter, and in the case of cherished photographs, six rollers or more is even better. These are generally the more expensive models, but as with so many things, high-end photo laminating machines do tend to confirm the old ‘get what you pay for’ adage.

Also, be conscious of the film or pouch you’re using for the lamination on important photographs. For the best results, you’ll want to use high-quality film that’s relatively newly made and decide beforehand what’s the most appropriate trade-off for you between the thickness (and thus durability) and consistency/rigidity. Also, be mindful of the finish you’re looking for - gloss pouches or matte, smooth or textured - and, for really cherished items, always do a practice run on a blank piece of paper first.

All laminators will come with their own specific step-by-step instructions, and these should always be your first port of call when looking for guidance on how to use a laminating machine. However, there are rules of thumb which are common to laminators, and it pays to know the general workflow for laminating prior to inserting your first document.

When using a pouch-style laminator to seal plastic wallets or films together around an item, the document and its pouch are usually assembled first outside the machine. In some cases, these are then placed inside an additional protective cardboard cover, known as a carrier.

On certain models, this carrier adds an important layer of protection between the hot rollers and the plastic surface, which reduces the chances of the plastic pouch bubbling, clouding or sticking to the rollers as it’s heated. Note, however, that most modern brands of laminating machine no longer require a carrier - it used to be entirely standard, but these days the demand for them is becoming less widespread.

Always check whether the manufacturer of your chosen model recommends a carrier or not, as using them unnecessarily can mean having to perform multiple passes of a single document, when in most cases they ought to require just one. Where they are required, they can sometimes be supplied with the laminating machine itself, but it’s more common to find them included with packs of pouches bought separately.

During the lamination process, the user waits for machine’s rollers to come up to temperature after being switched on and then feeds the document assembled in its pouch - either with or without the cardboard carrier - in through an opening or tray at one side of the machine. As the document passes through the rollers, the plastic pouch around it is heated and pressed together, forming a sealed cover.

Depending on the make and model of laminator you buy, you may find you have to wait a short while between lamination runs so that the rollers can get back up to ideal temperature before the next batch is worked through.

After successfully laminating a document or item, any excess plastic left to form a border around the edges can then be trimmed away once the surface has completely cooled. Never attempt to do this when the item is fresh off the machine, as this can warp or distort the plastic in various ways which will then be very difficult to correct or remove as the sealed pouch hardens.

The company is the world’s best Thermal Lamination Film Manufacturer supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.