Pouch Laminators: Quick and Easy Laminating

Let us say you have an identification card or some other small item that you want to protect. You need the protective cover to be tough, rigid and transparent, while still being affordable enough to avoid breaking your bank account. This is where pouch laminators come into the equation.

What are pouch laminators?

Pouch laminators are used to handle pouch lamination jobs. Sarcasm aside, these laminators are specifically designed to seal off plastic "pouches" which are made of plastic sheets sealed from all corners except two adjacent corners. These two unsealed corners makes up the portal for which the item to be laminated will be inserted, and this portal will then be sealed once the item in question is firmly in place. How these pouches are sealed determines the type of laminator you"ll be using.

What are the kinds of pouch laminators?

The first and most common kind of pouch laminator out there are heat laminators. These laminators use a special kind of plastic pouch that has easily-melting resin on the interior of the pouch with a glossy, lustrous finish on the exterior. As the pouch passes through the heated rollers of the laminator, the resin melts away to form a powerful adhesive to seal the pouch up good. These types of pouch laminators are quick, effective and produce high-quality finished products, but could potentially damage items that cannot withstand heat.

Then you have cold laminators. These laminators have pressure-activated adhesives on one side to replace the resin used by heat laminators. These kinds of adhesives will then stick together if enough force is applied, removing the need for heated rollers to get the job done. These types of laminators come highly recommended for office use, since they are more affordable and less damaging to documents than regular heat laminators, but have the problem of being slow to use and less effective at sealing a laminated product.

Pouch laminators vs. industrial laminators

It is important to note that pouch laminators can only handle smaller documents that can be found in and around the office. Identification cards, small pictures, contracts and even entire sheets of paper can be laminated by regular pouch laminators. Bigger lamination jobs, however, require the use of larger industrial laminators. Banners, signs and other similar items need to be pressed by large rollers, and this is what separates pouch laminators from their industrial brethren.

This is also true for frequency of use. Pouch laminators are inexpensive compared to industrial laminators, running between $150 to $1,500 depending on brand and specifications, but they are unable to process continuous laminating jobs. They will end up breaking down after more than an hour of constant use. Keep this in mind if you plan to use such laminators for multiple laminating jobs, and you'll be able to prevent your pouch laminator from burning out.

So there you have it, the basics of pouch laminators. They are quick and easy office solutions to small laminating jobs, and come highly recommended for any office that deals in the business of documents.