Suggestions Adding slitters to roll laminator?

[MikePro]

short runs this has never been an issue, but full-roll or multiple-roll runs I just takeup the whole print onto a roll and then hit it with the bandsaw.
i've simply placed teflon tape in places where the sticky overhang laminate would touch anything before making its way to the roll.

issue I see with simply adding a blade to the takeup, or anywhere on the laminator, is that you don't have anything pulling on the laminate being cut-off. ....and we all know that shoving a blade through vinyl without any sort of tension has undesired results.

 

[MarkSnelling]

having sold thousands of laminators, I can tell you that the slitters rarely work accurately unless you have a brand new laminator or a Kala laminator. If the prints or the laminates are not wound correctly, or if your rolls are not perfectly parallel, then the material is going to move rendering the slitters useless.

With that said, the Kala slitters make some sense....the Kala is the only self-leveling nip in the industry so you know you are going to run straight (assuming your rolled up prints have not Chinese Yo-Yo'd on you). One other cool design on the Kala slitters is you can turn the blades up and cut the laminate on the way to the print so you are effectly trimming your laminate from 54" down to 53 or whatever you want so you'll have no overhanging laminate off the side of the print.

 

[MNT_Printhead]

short runs this has never been an issue, but full-roll or multiple-roll runs I just takeup the whole print onto a roll and then hit it with the bandsaw.
i've simply placed teflon tape in places where the sticky overhang laminate would touch anything before making its way to the roll.

issue I see with simply adding a blade to the takeup, or anywhere on the laminator, is that you don't have anything pulling on the laminate being cut-off. ....and we all know that shoving a blade through vinyl without any sort of tension has undesired results.

I don't lower the blades until the material is on the take up so the cut material just rolls up with the rest of the material.

 

[White Haus]

having sold thousands of laminators, I can tell you that the slitters rarely work accurately unless you have a brand new laminator or a Kala laminator. If the prints or the laminates are not wound correctly, or if your rolls are not perfectly parallel, then the material is going to move rendering the slitters useless.

With that said, the Kala slitters make some sense....the Kala is the only self-leveling nip in the industry so you know you are going to run straight (assuming your rolled up prints have not Chinese Yo-Yo'd on you). One other cool design on the Kala slitters is you can turn the blades up and cut the laminate on the way to the print so you are effectly trimming your laminate from 54" down to 53 or whatever you want so you'll have no overhanging laminate off the side of the print.

I'm not too concerned about accuracy, despite our ancient GBC laminator tracking pretty damn straight. This is why we still use it as our main laminator and why we have a brand new Mimaki laminator sitting in the corner, collecting dust. (Anyone wanna by a like-new, Mimaki laminator??)

A full roll will track within 1/4" or so, and we always have at least 1" of leeway on each side from edge of vinyl to any marks/prints. So if slitter(s) were set a hair within the media we would be golden.

We also have 2 sets of rollers on the GBC so as long as slitter is mounted in between the sets, the back roller should continue to pull the main roll and off-cut through.

Will report back with my findings once I have time to tinker.

 

[White Haus]

Yup. I go into it with the mindset that I learn on a cheap piece of equipment... then buy the "Professional" grade one after I make all my learning mistakes on the cheap equipment. I say that...but then my Omtech turned out to be better than Trotec (For my needs). I've had to do mirror alignments, had to lubricate the rails a lot...replace a few limit switches, level the bed, Added a new compressor withdual air lines so It'll always blow a small amount of air when its off, and a large amount when I want it on...etc. I've gotten to a point where if I had the machine apart in 1000 pieces...I could build it from scratch... Which isnt for everyone, but I like to do all my own repairs and understand HOW and why the equipment is built the way it is...so I know how to get myself back up and running quickly.

Same with the flatbed - I've had to take apart every piece on our CET 5x10 this past month... It's my works flatbed, so I don't mind if I break something But if it was my 100K Machine, I wouldnt want to touch it and I'd only let a tech do it... It's much easier to take apart ink lines and heads, and capping stations on a 4K printer than on a 40K printer. And I figure any problem I have with a name brand printer, I'd have already had with the chinese printer.... so I'm ahead of myself.


I think your laminator will workfine, leaf is a good brand and has been around awhile - I think their early flatbed applicators had low spots / issues... not sure if that got worked out, but I imagine it did - But their regular laminators have always been reviewed good.

Some good info here. I'm starting to lean towards getting a cheap chinese laser to play/tinker with and learn the ropes at a lower entry cost.

Any brands/tips to check out/stay away from? Ideally looking to play around with laser cut acrylic letters and maybe some tactile stuff just for fun.

 

[ikarasu]

Some good info here. I'm starting to lean towards getting a cheap chinese laser to play/tinker with and learn the ropes at a lower entry cost.

Any brands/tips to check out/stay away from? Ideally looking to play around with laser cut acrylic letters and maybe some tactile stuff just for fun.

Omtech is great - They have USA support (Partially). I've had a few broken pieces upon arrival due to shipping, and they overnighted new ones right away. Theyre "High end" chinese, you could probably get it for 70% the price buying direct from china... but theyre cheap enough, and this ships from USA.

https://ca.omtechlaser.com/ - Search for omtech laser guys coupon for a 5% off coupon.

The trotec has better motors, so its faster at engraving - BUT the omtech has higher power...so its better for cutting. So acyrlic and tactile is better on the omtech. The omtech pro is using the better motors, but at double the price of the regular... It looks nice, and I'd probably get one of those if I were to buy again, just for the speed increase / better motors... Still 1/4 the price of a trotec, and on par with one now.

I paid my laser off within a week of having it just doing acyrlic letters... But it opens the door to so much more. Doing Fatheads on coro, heck even Realtor arrows / etc if you dont have a CNC machine -Cut acyrlic letters, Lamacoids - I only do "Signage" type work, I dont do any promotional items.... It can do them, but I'd rather not deal with hundreds of customers and just deal with B2B stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/@BeardedBuildsCo - this is the guy that does the "Omtech facebook official support" group, and who does the laserguys 5% off code - Watch some of his videos, including the new pro one to see the metal cutting if that interests you. My CO2 laser is omtech - Fiber laser (Metal marking, dont use it as often) Is direct from china... I dont regret either! My buddy has a trotec in his shop, and I can do everything he can... engraving a bit slower, but cutting way, way faster

 

[MNT_Printhead]

One other cool design on the Kala slitters is you can turn the blades up and cut the laminate on the way to the print so you are effectly trimming your laminate from 54" down to 53 or whatever you want so you'll have no overhanging laminate off the side of the print.

I appreciate this tip, I have had the Kala less than 6 months and had not considered this as an option. I was on the fence with between the Kala and top end GFP, then read some posts on here about the Kala's tracking; When my vendor said they had 10 in stock ready to deliver in a week I was sold.

 

[MarkSnelling]

I appreciate this tip, I have had the Kala less than 6 months and had not considered this as an option. I was on the fence with between the Kala and top end GFP, then read some posts on here about the Kala's tracking; When my vendor said they had 10 in stock ready to deliver in a week I was sold.

You made the right call. I tell people all the time that spending the right amount of money on the laminator is a smart investment....if you buy the right laminator (don't be cheap) it will outlast four or five printers over the next two decades. You can add those slitters at any time....it costs about $1000 for the slitters.

 

[White Haus]

Omtech is great - They have USA support (Partially). I've had a few broken pieces upon arrival due to shipping, and they overnighted new ones right away. Theyre "High end" chinese, you could probably get it for 70% the price buying direct from china... but theyre cheap enough, and this ships from USA.

https://ca.omtechlaser.com/ - Search for omtech laser guys coupon for a 5% off coupon.

The trotec has better motors, so its faster at engraving - BUT the omtech has higher power...so its better for cutting. So acyrlic and tactile is better on the omtech. The omtech pro is using the better motors, but at double the price of the regular... It looks nice, and I'd probably get one of those if I were to buy again, just for the speed increase / better motors... Still 1/4 the price of a trotec, and on par with one now.

I paid my laser off within a week of having it just doing acyrlic letters... But it opens the door to so much more. Doing Fatheads on coro, heck even Realtor arrows / etc if you dont have a CNC machine -Cut acyrlic letters, Lamacoids - I only do "Signage" type work, I dont do any promotional items.... It can do them, but I'd rather not deal with hundreds of customers and just deal with B2B stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/@BeardedBuildsCo - this is the guy that does the "Omtech facebook official support" group, and who does the laserguys 5% off code - Watch some of his videos, including the new pro one to see the metal cutting if that interests you. My CO2 laser is omtech - Fiber laser (Metal marking, dont use it as often) Is direct from china... I dont regret either! My buddy has a trotec in his shop, and I can do everything he can... engraving a bit slower, but cutting way, way faster

Awesome, thanks for the info!! I didn't see anything about the Omtech pro on their website, but the price point of the old/non-pro models is pretty sweet. I'll do some more research and see if this is something we should consider adding.

Thanks again for your insight.

 

[ikarasu]

You made the right call. I tell people all the time that spending the right amount of money on the laminator is a smart investment....if you buy the right laminator (don't be cheap) it will outlast four or five printers over the next two decades. You can add those slitters at any time....it costs about $1000 for the slitters.

Usually I agree... but who wants equipment that 2 decades?

We had a Seal 54 base... cost was $22K. Had it for a decade until someone sliced the roller up... we re-sleeved it, but it never worked as good. We bought a cheap $5K Royal Soveirgn Fremont.... It tracks nice, has slitters on it, It does 50 FT a minute instead of 16 FT a minute....so instead of 10-15 mins a roll, we now take 3-5 mins a roll... Its IMO, way better than our seal. We save a lot of labour, and the slitters are awesome.

If it breaks every 3 years, we're still ahead of the game cost wise as well. A laminator is a very simple piece of tech... I don't see the point in buying a really expensive one. We did look at the Kala, and while they were nice... We didn't see how it was 4-5X as nice. Been using the RS for 7 months now, done hundreds of rolls through it... and not 1 issue. The only thing I dont like is the roller cant hold a full roll of Diamond grade vinyl + Overlam... it starts hitting the roll up tray on the last 20 FT. The kala looks to accomodate bigger roll diameters - but We're probably the outlier, not many people laminate full traffic rolls, so I dont see it being an issue for most

 

[MNT_Printhead]

You made the right call. I tell people all the time that spending the right amount of money on the laminator is a smart investment....if you buy the right laminator (don't be cheap) it will outlast four or five printers over the next two decades. You can add those slitters at any time....it costs about $1000 for the slitters.

I think I paid about $250-300 for the last single slitter I ordered. The Kala replaced a 4 year old RS 64" with take up that I purchased in my first year not knowing what kind of volume I would be dealing with having never dealt with laminator at this volume before, after 4 years the take up holders bowed out and would drop the take up roll from it holders if not set carefully, mech system and it wasn't worth the effort of having the flanges rebent. I still need to sell it and when I saw what I had paid I was disappointed. Going to list it for $5k once I get good pictures, great for a small Fast Signs shop, not for my volume and staffing now though. Central Colorado and can arrange for delivery if anyone wants to buy it. Hell if you work with metal you could just make new flanges I don't have time for it or have the equipment to do it myself; If I had other departments get involved to get it done it would cost more than it is worth.

I am just South of Denver and will be happy to show off my Kala if anyone is interesting in getting one - I am not a seller, but this thing is a huge game changer if you run high volume and I like to meet others in the trade. Imagine a Graphic Artist who doesn't mind running printers and profiling etc and rarely does finishing actually LOOKING FORWARD TO LAMINATING. I ran RSs' like a champ, but the Kala is amazing once you grasp the learning curve.