Jargon buster > Laminating Machines Jargon Buster

What is laminating?

• Laminating coats your documents in a sealed, water resistant film of hard wearing see through plastic.
• You put your document into the plastic pouch, run it through a laminating machine which seals the plastic and encapsulates the document.

• To protect them, prevent them from being tampered with, make them hard wearing, water-resistant; give a professional finish that can be wiped clean.
• It also makes the colours on your document more vivid

• Signs, menus, price lists, posters, certificates, membership cards, luggage tags, corporate information.

• 2 types are available, 2 roller (for light use in sizes A3 or A4) or 4 roller (for medium to heavy use in sizes A2, A3 or A4)

• These laminators use film rather than pouches.
• You place your document between 2 individual rolls of film and pass them through the laminator and trim to size.
• Great for volume production.

• Cold laminators use self seal pouches and press the 2 sticky sides of film together.
• Useful in situations where there is no power, or for children.

• Made from polyester (plastic) these are normally open at 3 sides so you can place your document inside the pouch before running it through your laminator.
• They can be gloss or matt to give you a choice of finish.
• They are measured in microns, the higher the microns the thicker the plastic (see below)

• This is the unit of measurement to describe the thickness of the pouch
• 150 microns means that there are 2 layers (front and back) of 75 microns.
• The higher the microns the thicker and therefore more durable the pouch.
• As a guide use:
• 150 micron: Day to day lightweight lamination
• 360 micron: For when a more rigid finnish is required such as documents that are frequently handled
• 500 micron: For documents that need lots of protection such as menus

• This is Anti-jam technology from GBC which ensures perfect lamination results every time.

• Again from GBC this is the fastest technology on the market.