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real difference between a 3k$ laminator and 12k$ laminator

bigben

Not a newbie
Hi, I would like to know what is the difference between a 3k$ (ex: ustech) and a 12$ (ex: kala mistral) laminator. Does the price difference is really justified?

Thanks.
 

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
I'll bet they take you to dinner before they take the 12k out of your wallet.
For 3k you'd maybe get a coupon for a happy meal.

I would think it would be like anything else, the hi dollar unit should have better components that will save you downtime and repairs much farther into the future.
I can't afford the good stuff so I make due with the low end gear.

wayne k
guam usa
 

Gene@mpls

New Member
There is mid level equipment as well. I have had two Royal Sovereigns and no problems... we use them a lot. Gene
 

rjssigns

Active Member
Seems to be a number of folks here quite happy with their $3K laminators. We run a Royal Sovereign, but it came with the printer. If I had to buy outright I'd get a $3K(or less) rig.

Bet if you took a US Tech and that Mistral and stripped them down to their bare components you'd find them shockingly similar.

I used to build industrial paper processing equipment and every bell, whistle and "added for ease of operation" trick is another point of failure.

As I've said before; Laminating is an art not science. You have to figure out what your rig wants.

It took a little while to figure out our RS, but we've done full rolls(150') with a 1/4" drift on our RS.(you'd die laughing if you saw my infeed set-up)
 

bigben

Not a newbie
Great! Thank you all for the info. So I guess there will be 9k left in my pocket. Now if I only could find a XY trimmer cheaper than the fotoba... Any suggestions?
 

TDFcustomSL

New Member
Laminators are essentially very simple machines. rollers, a motor, a speed controller, and a switch really. Maybe some heaters if your going heat assist. I was impressed by the build quality of my us tech. It is really stable and works great.
 
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