Laminator Out of Whack

[truckgraphics]

We have a USTech, 54" laminator and for the past two years, it has been great. We laminate everything from 30" to 54" on it, but for the past couple of months or so, have been using it for 30" and (mostly) 36" cast materials. Yesterday, immediately after laminating a 36 inch sheet of cast material (3M 180c) perfectly, we used it to overlaminate 54" cast materials - (eight and ten foot runs) and the results were bubblelicious, not to mention the silvering.

I have adjusted the tension and pressure (increased pressure bunched material). Also, it seems the bottom roller was slipping a bit when I held on to material, so I sprayed a thin layer of adhesive onto a piece of vinyl and ran it through the machine in the hope of reducing slippage (dumb move? not sure.). The machine laminates better now, but not as well as it should - or needs to.

Any suggestions, other than to reprint half a van wrap on 36"?

 

[PrinterJess]

Maybe check Nip and adjust if needed. Rollers might be concave or canted if roller slips when feeding materials, check that out too. Hope it's an easy fix and you get it figured out.

 

[Desert_Signs]

My UStech works best if the adjustment knobs are 'free spinning'. It's purely the weight of the rollers doing the work. If I try to add extra pressure, I always have problems. There is a possibility that by leaving your rollers set down all the time (if you did) that you lost the crown which could cause what you're describing.

 

[truckgraphics]

Solutions

My UStech works best if the adjustment knobs are 'free spinning'. It's purely the weight of the rollers doing the work. If I try to add extra pressure, I always have problems. There is a possibility that by leaving your rollers set down all the time (if you did) that you lost the crown which could cause what you're describing.

We don't leave the rollers down (or not to my best recollection...I check at the end of the day, but my memory might not be perfect.), but apparently running 36" material regularly caused the rollers to take the wrong set set.

I called UStech and they answered right away (should have been my first move). They suggested tightening one side or another if I could see light between a portion of the rollers (I couldn't) or running the laminator with a little tension between the rollers for a couple of hours to re-shape the rollers. Actually, that didn't work either, but it seems like it might work if I do this for a longer period. When we finish this job, I am going to give it another try!

My third option was (of course) to put the material on a sled. This worked after adding a little tension to the rollers - past the free spinning point. The sled kept the material from bunching on the long run. Not my favorite solution as a 10 foot run on 2mm PVC is a little hard to handle in a limited amount of shop room, but it did the trick.

Now, I hope the rollers still work with 36" material.

Thanks for your comments and suggestions and kudos to UStech for their excellent customer service.

If anyone else has other suggestions, I would be welcome to hear them as, again, using a sled isn't my first choice.

 

[ActionGraphics]

have you tried keeping some back tension on the media as it feeds through?

 

[catldavis]

Mine did the exact same thing. My customer service experience wasn't as great as yours as it took therm forever to respond and they said $1,500 or some nonsense for a new roller (it's been a few months ago). I haven't tried too hard, but never could get it back to working with wider material.