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If you’re the type of company that has cupboards full of old files and documents scattered about the office, you’ll know that paper isn’t the most robust of materials. This is especially galling seeing as we tend to commit some of most valuable information to the medium in the hope that you’ll be able to refer back to it in a few decades time.

Even worse – how many times have you seen paper posters popped on a tree or noticeboard somewhere  left to battle with the elemental forces of rain, sun and wind? Paper in its raw form is not at all tough enough to last in anything other than a closed environment. The minute you introduce it to a bit of water and the fibres keeping the whole thing together begin to very quickly expand and no matter how much you try, you can never get them to go back together without leaving a crinkly mess.

So, for documents you want to keep relatively safe and dry, you need to do something about it and many people go for those little plastic wallets. Unfortunately these can make things much worse. I’ve seen some amazing examples of card being stored in a plastic wallet which is then pinned to a board that begins to fill up nicely with water during the first rainstorm.

Nope, something else is needed and this is where thermal laminating comes in. The process is very simple in that you take some specially treated plastic wallets, wrap them around your paper or card and then pass it through a machine that heats up to over 200 degrees centigrade. As the lamination and paper passes through, any bits of the plastic that are touching are effectively welded together.

But does it work? Well, again, you still need to be careful. Remember – the laminate isn’t bound together where it touches the paper so if you then go and put a drawing pin through it you are exposing it to the elements yet again.

Also, laminating in this way will still let sunlight through and although it’s a lengthy process, you need to bear this in mind.