FAQs > Laminating Machine FAQ's

What items can I laminate?

You can laminate any document you wish to protect, for example: signs, menus, price lists, certificates, luggage tags, membership cards, corporate info.


Should I get a cold laminator or a heat-based laminator?

It depends really, the cold laminators are safer to use (so more suited to school use etc. where children may be using them) but a heat-based laminator will give a better finish. Cold machines work by pressing the two adhesive sides of a pouch together, whereas the heat-based one actually melts the pouch material so it bonds with the document inside, which gives a better more consistently professional finish.


What thickness of pouch material do I need?

It depends upon the level of protection you require, if it is basic protection for personal use, a 1.5 mil thickness will be fine whereas if the document is to be shared amongst office staff it may need a greater degree of protection – 3.0 mil would offer better protection.
If the document you wish to laminate is quite large and will be re-used on many occasions (ie a poster) you will require a greater degree of protection (eg 5.0 mil).


How do I stop wrinkles appearing?

Wrinkles and bubbles tend to be caused by a heat laminator being too hot, which causes the glue to melt too fast. Turning the heat down will solve this problem.


How do I stop a cloudy appearance?

This tends to happen when the heat is not turned up high enough. The glue is not being fully melted (as it is not hot enough) and it is the glue, which has not melted and looks cloudy. This is an easy problem to fix as you can pass the document through the machine again at a higher temperature without affecting the quality of the document.