advice needed - Easymount silvering because of static? o

[Thompson Design]

We recently upgraded our used Chinese POS laminator - we went with a Vivid Easymount 64" with heat assist (demo model - paid $5500 plus hst for it) fast forward a month into using it and we are getting frustrated with bubbles and silvering on every print. Call out the company that sold it to us and they send out their repair guy. He takes it all apart and tries to tune it all up. He went through over 60' of 1105/1360 while trying to adjust it. We printed a full wrap three times and still ended up cutting and pasting what we could use on the vehicle with the result. (all that their service guy laminated for us)

The end result from his service call was that there is too much static in our shop and it is effecting the laminator. BUT they can upgrade us to a Royal Sovereign for an extra $2000. The RS is a 55" model. We have a 60" HP and a 54" Roland we are printing from.

I am at a loss and looking for some advice. Do we spend the extra $2000 for another 'entry level' laminator that is 5" shorter than our widest printing capability or do we not accept the fact that our 2 month old laminator is silvering because of static? All of my research I've done regarding static - the issue seems to be with it attracting dust, not silvering and bubbling. Can anyone provide me with some guidance please?

 

[CanuckSigns]

I've never heard of that, silvering usually goes away in a day or so, but if your laminator has heat that should eliminate the silvering.

Easy way to test his theory, buy a humidifier and see if there is a difference. Sometimes techs will give you answers like this when they can't admit that they have no idea what the problem is, especially when the machine is under warranty.

 

[Gino]

Did your Chinese model do much silvering ??

 

[jwilde]

We use Seal Pro 64's and can still get silvering if we don't use some amount of heat. It just depends on the over-laminate product, temp and humidity. As CanuckSigns said the "wet out" will finish in a couple of days. It just depends on the project and what your customer expects.

How hot does your heat assist get? Also, it appears that part of your graphic looks fine on the one half and only a portion has the silvering. Unless you squeegeed it down on the good part you may have warped rollers. When we are done with a high heat project we split the rollers and keep them rolling to cool.

 

[AF]

Our AGL doesn't silver unless it we are using the cheapest materials, and in those cases any silvering is minimal and goes away quickly. We have heat assist. I am curious if the silvering you are experiencing goes away after 24 hours.

 

[Joe House]

I've not heard of static causing silvering. If you have good laminate on one side and silvering on the other, then most likely your rollers aren't parallel or you could have a flat spot from leaving it down for a long time.
I'm not familiar with that model, so I can't suggest how to adjust the rollers, but if it's a flat spot, sometimes you can turn on the heat and the rollers at low speed and let them run for half a day. Sometimes that will fix the flat.
But if it's only 2 months old, I would keep pushing to get this right.