The Shop
The Art of Laminating Mastering the Final Touch in Graphics Production By Adam Sumner Whether you have just made the venture into the Wraps industry or you are a seasoned pro. Each shop around the globe has one common goal: print the best, most vibrant graphics you can and the fastest speed possible. I talked last month about printers and how to choose the right one because that’s what people love. For years we have seen so many advancements in printer technology. And next year something amazing will come out, I’m sure. Some new ink set, some advancement that will allow you to move from printer to lamination faster. Because the goal of the printer manufacturer is to get you to buy ink. The money for them is in the consumables. And in 3 years time that topof-the-line printer you just purchased will be replaced with the new model that will leave you feeling left out like the kid on the kickball field. However in the back corner of every shop or trade show floor is the black sheep of the family, the laminator. It quietly sits there not making a sound and gets passed up and not even thought about by the majority of shops. Why, because from the first laminator to the current modern laminators very little has changed. Moving from hand lamination to adding motors, and now the addition of heat-assisted 36 l WrapFam Unleashed l February 2024
rollers the advancements in lamination are not as visible as they are in the printer space. In my opinion, lamination is hands down the most important step of the process. And it happens to be the one machine that if maintained correctly does not need to be replaced. In fact, the only time I ever needed to buy a new laminator was because of my own mistakes. The first laminator that I replaced was a royal sovereign. It was not broken and was working just fine when we got rid of it, I just made the mistake and punched a 54-inch laminator to match the size of my printer at the time. When my printer went down and needed to be replaced we upgraded the size to a 64-inch machine and needed a laminator to match our production capabilities. We replaced the Royal with a GBC Spire 3 laminator in 2010 and it’s still running every day. We then added an additional CWT galaxy laminator just to help increase workflow. Both machines are currently used each day. This article is about the art of laminating not what machine is right for you or what machine is the best on the market. This article is about understating how lamination can affect the final installed product. And in order to do that we need to understand exactly what is happening to the film when we laminate. We can break it up into four categories: pressure, tension, heat, and speed.
