Question Laminating the hard way; help?

[ADVANCED DISPLAY]

I bought this business 4+ years ago, we've got a laminator we use for our 54" rolls of printed 3m IJ whatever, to laminate before we plot them. My manager (who's been doing this 20+ years) swears he can't use the laminator in any other way; instead of running the roll to roll where it applies the laminate and rolls the finished material on to the new roll without much attention, he runs it all out on to the 5'x10' table we've got in front of the laminator, holding the decal roll as it feeds into the machine.

He says the roll holder is too big (or small, one of the two) for the cores of the material we use. I'm sure there are fittings or something available to remedy this problem. Push come to shove a new laminator wouldn't break the bank and if it allows us to automate this process it'd be worth every penny.

Am I nuts, or is this a stupid problem to have?

 

[Mr. Signboy]

What kind of laminator is it?

 

[Raum Divarco]

sounds like someone is accustomed to doing it the way they have been.
There are various roll adapters for core sizes assuming it fits the mandrel.
FDM 3D printing is popular and you probably have someone local that can make you something cost effective unless you spec your size of the bar and just order something.

 

[Stacey K]

I agree, sounds like a quick fix for someone who welds or fabricates.

 

[MikePro]

he may be correct, and mistaken, at the same time. one of the rolls loses a LOT of its thickness when the liner is removed, the takeup roll should hold an entire laminated roll BUT most likely won't hold two rolls of stock material with its backing.
that being said, holding the feed roll is not uncommon for me BUT i prefer the hands-free approach of utilizing the lamator hold everythig while I as the operator am able to keep my eyes on everything else and hands-free to make adjustments.

edited to add: your laminator, as well as mine, most likely doesn't have a takeup reel.... running the finished lamination onto the table is the best option at the moment. if you let it run into a pile on the floor you get a dusty mess being fed into your plotter/cutter, full of creases from the print accordian-folding & creasing under its own weight. Been running this Seal 54" for almost 20years now and its time to upgrade to one with a take-up.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

That's a stupid way to laminate. You can make anything work if you want to, if you don't want it to work, you make excuses.
Edited: like mikepro said with no take-up option it hits the ground. Even still, you can buy take up systems for cheap and make it work.

 

[JulieS]

This is my quick and (really not very) dirty method: a vinyl box with 2 cardboard cores resting in the bottom to hold the roll of printed vinyl as it's pulled through the laminator. It's a lot quicker than loading the roll onto a bar that I then would have trouble lifting by myself. I keep a roll of scrap backing paper on that front bar.

 

[Boudica]

This is my quick and (really not very) dirty method: a vinyl box with 2 cardboard cores resting in the bottom to hold the roll of printed vinyl as it's pulled through the laminator. It's a lot quicker than loading the roll onto a bar that I then would have trouble lifting by myself. I keep a roll of scrap backing paper on that front bar.
View attachment 158679

I do that too! For a shorter run that isn't long enough to put on the actual roll. Never thought of putting cores inside the box though. I just have the flaps down to form a v

 

[truckgraphics]

We spread the unlaminated print out on a long table and use the take up roll to capture it. Our shop is organized with the printer, tables and laminator lined up at the side, so it's pretty efficient.

Roll to roll is fine, except our laminator lifted the feed roll out of its holder once...And I like to see the finished print on the table before it gets laminate. So we don't go roll to roll, but I could see how that could be the most efficient layout. Like the original poster, I'm comfortable with our process. But having had a laminator without a take-up roll, I wouldn't forego the luxury of using the take up roll now that I have one.

If you have a working take up roll, I don't see any reason why you wouldn't use it. It makes the process easier and cleaner.

 

[citysignshop]

I guess I've done both; in the previous shop, I had room to run out on a table, kept the print flat and clean, quick to trim and process.
This shop is tighter, so I had to manually roll it onto the take-up roller ( 3" core) which was almost a waste of time, especially if it wasn't tracking well. Finally bought a couple more of these wire catch baskets and zip-tied them under the laminator. I rarely use the in-feed roll holder, it just doesn't seem to tolerate ANY mis-alignment of the feed thru the rollers =....waves....buckle.....wrinkle.....@#&$^#%!!! Royal Sovereign RSC-1401c
The pic is worth 1000 words. The more large wraps I do, the more I want a power take-up, and heated laminator!

 

[Manning]

We use a roll-x applicator table and it has reduced screw ups to basically zero. We had a RS laminator and it would wrinkle after about 8’ half the time. I’m not sure if there is a difference in required pressure for laminating as far as the outdoor life is concerned. *we did run 3 and 6 mil composite through it. Probably did help

 

[coastguy111]

Has anyone ever seen or used collars on the ends of each take up rolls (final take-up and the laminate backing take-up)? To essentially keep the film from walking?

 

[jfiscus]

Sounds like it is time to get a new laminator. We used to have an old Seal laminator here that took two people to operate and a full roll took an hour plus to get through. After checking out a new laminator it saved TONS of time every day with one person laminating roll-to-roll in under 15 minutes. I recommend a GFP, we have a few here and they're trouble-free.