Laminating & Binding Buyer’s Guide
What To Consider When Buying A Laminating & Binding Machine
Document Size
Various businesses will buy laminating and binding machines for various reasons. There are some that need to laminate minor, small pieces of paper and those who need to use them for things that are the size of flags and beyond.
Knowing what you will laminate will help you decide which product you should buy to get the job done.
Consider the papers you will laminate with your new machine. Would the sizes vary or be uniform? Or are you going to laminate a variety of sizes, from flags to business cards to menus and more?
If you typically laminate documents of standardized sizes, pouch laminators are really a perfect option. Many little things can also go into a laminating pouch. A rolling laminator is perhaps your preferred choice if you require solutions which are more versatile and adaptable.
The document sizes that the most common and popular roll laminators can handle range from 8" to 30". Although they can laminate tiny objects and documents sized to 11" x 17," automated laminators are best for normal sized papers.
Number of Pieces
There are some people and businesses that will only laminate one item every once in a while. They will not be using their laminating and binding machines often. Then there are other businesses that will be laminating a huge number of items or products, sometimes every single day.
All of this needs to be taken into consideration when shopping for a laminating and binding machine. The amount of work and the number of pieces that need work done to them are an important factor to keep in mind during shopping.
Think about how many documents you could laminate at once and also how frequently you will need to do so. A bag laminator is ideal for your company if you laminate little tasks either once twice a week. A roll laminator would be the right approach if you need to laminate a lot of huge documents or items with unusual forms.
For people who laminate many times each week and for big laminating tasks with normal sized sheets, automatic laminators are fantastic.
Thickness
Just how thick do you want your laminated product to be? Do you want it to be downright stiff and impossible to manipulate because of the lamination or do you wish that it’s flimsy and light, almost like a piece of paper with just the thinnest amount of protection coating it?
You need to take mils into consideration when looking for a laminating and binding product. Mils are the units that are used to measure laminating films. The lamination will be stiffer, thicker, and touch the higher the mil number is. Although bigger mils are inflexible, lesser mils maintain greater elasticity.
Consumers have a broad range of thickness possibilities with pouch laminators because their thickness ranges from 3 mil to 10 mil.
Usually, 1.5 mil–3 mil films are fed using roll laminators. This is perhaps the most common amount of lamination and you have likely seen it many times before.
Meanwhile, automated laminators are a fantastic option for common applications because they may use 3 mil and 5 mil film cartridges. This will create the thickest layer of lamination around the product in use.
Some businesses are looking to have their products be well protected and incredibly thick with lamination while others want them to be as thin as possible. You need to determine what you are looking for when you are shopping for the right laminating and binding machine for your company and its causes.
Number of Users
It is very likely that a number of people will be using the same laminating and binding machine within a business.
If this is true, it means that great attention needs to be paid to how hard it is to use the product. If some employees are newcomers to laminating then the laminating and binding machine needs to be easy to use.
If the people using the machine have a lot of experience laminating, then the more complex and more capable machine can be looked into. The number of people, and their level of expertise, needs to be considered when shopping.
