Seal Ultra 62 C Misalignment

[ktwigger]

Hey all.

So we had a technician come in and check out our laminator, which was working okay but would get wrinkles in it on a long enough lamination. Well, he came by and made some adjustments (couldn't watch what he did unfortunately, was also training on our new HP printer the same day) and now the problem is worse. The lamination works for about 8 feet then gets severe wrinkling and bubbling on the left. I looked at Seal's website and in the manual it says the problem should be misalignment. Looking at the roller positions, I can see that they are in fact misaligned, probably by about 1/8" if I had to guess. Does anyone know an easy adjustment for this so I don't have to wait for the technician to come back out? Any advice on this would be extremely helpful, even if it's some kind of work around on the misalignment.

 

[AF]

If the base is level, are the rollers not parallel? Level the machine first before making any other adjustments.

 

[ktwigger]

The base is level as far as I can tell. Attached is an image of what I'm talking about. The top roller is clearly skewed a little to the left.

 

[De.signs Nanaimo]

We had the same issue, though not as pronounced, years ago in an old shop I worked for, with a brand new Seal. It was misaligned rollers and they ended up replacing the whole machine with a new one, and upgraded it with large production kit!

 

[ktwigger]

The base is level as far as I can tell. Attached is an image of what I'm talking about. The top roller is clearly skewed a little to the left.

*to the right.

Time for a lunchtime beer I think.

 

[ktwigger]

We had the same issue, though not as pronounced, years ago in an old shop with a new Seal. It was misaligned rollers and they ended up replacing the whole machine with a new one.

I think that is the route we'll be going with as well, but they're still looking for a replacement and in the meantime I'm having to reprint about half of everything and going a little crazy in the process. Just wondering if there's anything we can do temporarily.

 

[De.signs Nanaimo]

I think that is the route we'll be going with as well, but they're still looking for a replacement and in the meantime I'm having to reprint about half of everything and going a little crazy in the process. Just wondering if there's anything we can do temporarily.

I don't know of a solution sorry, we struggled for days trying to make it work. Ours was out just a tiny bit, so the creasing wasn't showing up until about 8 to 10 feet along, do you still have your old laminator?

 

[ktwigger]

I don't know of a solution sorry, we struggled for days trying to make it work. Ours was out just a tiny bit, so the creasing wasn't showing up until about 8 to 10 feet along, do you still have your old laminator?

Yeah, we're getting a new one at the end of this week and we're just trying to get by until then. Fortunately our new printer doesn't require laminate on everything so it's not horrible. My coworker has been making adjustments to the old laminator, but we're having the same problem, works well until about 8 to 10 feet in and then disaster strikes.

 

[dypinc]

Are you sure that cheap vinyls getting deformed by the curing heat on the HP is not your problem. How thick is your release liner on the vinyl.

Are you providing enough tension on both the over-lam and vinyl? And are you using the idler rollers so that both the over-lam and vinyl is on at least half the pinch rollers?

 

[ikarasu]

Our seals getting old (15ish years) and it does the same thing. Never thought about alignment but now I'll check!

We still do full rolls... It requires someone to stand in the mid of the ma Hine and hold onto the overlam slightly making it have more tension. Otherwise it'll get a bit loose and start drifting causing the big wrinkles.

Just light tensions enough even... But it seems to work,we do a full roll everyday along with misc other stuff. All we do is have one guy stand there applying a bit of pressure to the laminate roll by using friction with his hand.. I'd give that a try.... Might work. It sucks and I can't wait to replace the laminator.. But it works for now until we decide which to buy!

 

[AF]

Laminators are generally simple and repairable. See if you can get a parts breakdown on it. May be cheap and simple to repair.

 

[C5 Service&Repair]

that alignment probably isnt the issue. take two 1" x 10" strips of paper and put them between the rollers, one on each side about 2 - 3" in from the ends. then slowly, SLOWLY lower the rollers and see if both pieces of paper get trapped at the same time. You can do this alone, just lower the roller a touch then test each piece. If one grabs sooner than the other, then thats the issue and the top roller isnt level to the bottom one.
There are simple screw adjustments inside the case to level it. using the pieces of paper is the only way to get an accurate level. They both need to be able to slide back and forth between the rollers at the same time, then need to be trapped at the exact same time.
Also, I'm not sure what you know about laminating so excuse me if this is elementary, but you have to do you best to make sure that both the laminate and your print are as close to the center of the laminator as possible.

 

[fusiondesignuk]

that alignment probably isnt the issue. take two 1" x 10" strips of paper and put them between the rollers, one on each side about 2 - 3" in from the ends. then slowly, SLOWLY lower the rollers and see if both pieces of paper get trapped at the same time. You can do this alone, just lower the roller a touch then test each piece. If one grabs sooner than the other, then thats the issue and the top roller isnt level to the bottom one.
There are simple screw adjustments inside the case to level it. using the pieces of paper is the only way to get an accurate level. They both need to be able to slide back and forth between the rollers at the same time, then need to be trapped at the exact same time.
Also, I'm not sure what you know about laminating so excuse me if this is elementary, but you have to do you best to make sure that both the laminate and your print are as close to the center of the laminator as possible.

Where are the screws ?