Question on laminators

By fwscreener on Sep. 18, 2011

Hi
Can someone tell me when you need a hot laminator vs a cold laminator?

Thanks

Submitted by Capt-G on Mon, 09/19/2011 - 00:43

fwscreener wrote:
Hi
Can someone tell me when you need a hot laminator vs a cold laminator?

Thanks

Contact Ledco, they manufacture both types and can give you information on each.

ledcolaminators.com

Promo Print's picture
Submitted by Promo Print on Tue, 09/20/2011 - 01:54

With hot laminator you apply laminate film by pressure of hot rollers (eg. business cards)
With cold laminator you apply cold laminate film (self adhesive transparent film, hence you don't need heat) by pressure of cold rollers. Usually used to laminate big banners like pull up banners etc.

Submitted by fwscreener on Tue, 09/20/2011 - 09:49

Hi Promo,

Thank you for your response. We understand the differences our question is when do you use a hot laminate and when do you use a cold laminate?

We do alot of football / baseball helmet decals. Right now we sub this out. We have a Roland SP 300 V and are wanting to do our own helmet decals. Should we be looking at a hot lam or cold lam?

Thank you

Promo Print's picture
Submitted by Promo Print on Wed, 09/21/2011 - 02:46

If you have Roland SP 300 V I assume that you would print decals on PVC self adhesives.
In that case you will definitely need cold laminate as PVC would melt if you put through hot laminator.
Cold laminate is better than hot for a lot of reasons, much more durable, better adhesion, last longer, ideal for single side laminating.
Only minus is that it is more expensive.

Submitted by fwscreener on Thu, 09/22/2011 - 10:48

Thanks,

If I am hearing you correctly the material for cold laminate is more costly than the material for hot? The hot press machine is more costly than the cold, however in the long run the hot would be least expensive depending on how many decals you run.

Correct and thanks

Submitted by State Line Sign on Sat, 09/24/2011 - 11:25

Hi,
Hot laminate is for sandwiching a material in between two layers of heat activated laminate
If your laminate has a adhesive that is not heat activated, you want cold.
Or a little warm.
I have a heat laminate machine that does 24". I print decals on my gerber edge and laminate them on this laminater all the time. I turn on the heat to around 90 degrees
just to warm up the cold laminate material and it sticks great. If you go to 100 degrees it curls up the finished decal. Now when I want to laminate a sheet of cardboard or printed paper, I heat it up to around 300 degrees, use the hot laminate material and sandwich the paper in between. Hope that explains it.

Bruce

Submitted by fwscreener on Tue, 09/27/2011 - 09:28

Great thanks for the info.

Since you said you have a Gerber you can actually print white on clear vinyl? Correct.

If this is the case do you wholesale your work? I maybe interested, every so often I need white printed on clear.

Thanks

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