Laminating is a quick and easy way to protect your documents and enhance their quality. By adding a plastic coating to paper or card, a document becomes more durable with a quality, professional-looking finish.
So then if laminating is such a quick and easy process, why is there such a variety of machines and prices to choose from? Here are some things to consider when choosing a laminator:
Warm-up Time
Lower cost laminators can take up to five minutes to warm up; a long time to wait if you just want to laminate a singloe page. More expensive models have a one minute or even a thirty second warm up time.
What size pages do you wish to laminate?
A good A3 laminator can also laminate pages as small as A6 or credit card size. While they are a little more expensive than A4 laminators, A3 laminators are more versatile.
What thickness of laminating pouch do you wish to use?
Pouch thickness is measured in microns. The most common pouch thickness is 80 microns. Thicker pouches give you a more rigid finished result, making it somewhat more durable. Most machines can laminate 125 micron pouches. The more expensive machines can laminate the very thick 250 micron pouches.
Number of Rollers
The number of rollers the machine has determines its versatility and the quality of the finished result. Laminators with 2 rollers are capable of basic laminating jobs. More expensive machines have 6 rollers, making them more versatile and giving a better quality finished result.
Ease of Use
To get the best quality end result when laminating, the machine's heat and speed needs to be set for the size and thickness of the pouches you are using. Entry level laminators have manual controls for users to set the appropriate speed and heat. More expensive laminators automatically determine what you are laminating and adjust themselves appropriately, so all you need to know how to do is turn the machine on. Which is ideal if the laminator is being used by several different people with varying aptitudes for using machinery.
