subject: Selecting The Best Laminators For Your School, Home Or Office [print this page] Laminators are popular machines in schools, offices and your home, and offer great way to protect the many treasures and documents that are important to you. There are two types of laminators are available for sale, and each one has its own advantages.
Hot and Cold Lamination
Often when people think of laminating documents and objects, hot lamination is what comes to mind. Usually hot lamination requires that a document or item be placed inside the laminate (typically inside a laminating pouch) and then is put through a laminating machine that helps melt the film's adhesive to bond the object inside directly to the laminate. Alternatively, cold lamination is placing a sticky laminate sheet directly onto the object, requiring no heat at all to melt the glue.
Pouch Lamination
Pouch lamination is the most popular kind of laminating and certainly the easiest to use. Pouch laminating can laminate all different sizes of documents from a very small business card size, up to poster size items and larger. Pouch laminating is a simple process of folding a piece of laminate in half and sliding the document inside its pouch through your laminator. Once it reaches the other side, it is done. With the many different types of lamination, various sizes and assorted colors, you can become very creative with your laminating.
Roll Laminating
Roll laminating is typically done by professionals for high-volume operations. They are generally found a copy centers and commercial printers that laminate a lot of small and large items. Sometimes you will find schools and universities that employ the use of roll laminators. Using two rolls, the device will quickly laminate very large items including maps, blueprints and posters.
Laminating Fragile Items
The ultimate purpose of laminating anything is to protect it, made of sturdier, and have it last longer. Laminating is the ideal system for protecting anything that can fit in the pouch or between the rollers. Items such as personal documents, birth certificates, identification cards, menus, photographs and signs are just some of the fragile items that are easily laminated. Extremely fragile items are often best protected using cold lamination, because there is no heat involved throughout the process.
Laminating Jargon
Understanding laminating jargon you will come across the term "mil" and "carrier". In the laminating process, a carrier is the single most vital tool to have on hand. Appearing like a large envelope, it will surround your document and laminate as is put through the pouch laminator or roll laminators. It eliminates the problem of glue seeping out from the pouch and protects your documents while keeping the laminate machine clean. The carrier is usually included inside every box of various sized pouches. It is always a good idea to always have a clean one on hand.
When you buy your laminating pouch, you need to consider its "mil" size. The word "mil" refers to the thickness or density of the pouch, rated in thousands of an inch. Most pouches are available in thicknesses of 3 mil, 5 mil, 7 mil, and 10 mil.
