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Anyone have a custom trick to track laminate length?

D

DecalGenieTN

New Member
Someone a while back mentioned to me that they built some sort of length tracking system on their laminator, and I was curious to know if anyone here had done this..?

Thanks!
 
Solventinkjet

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
If you want to do a little math you can use this formula: L = pi ∗ (OD² / 4 − ID² / 4) / t

OD = Outside Diameter of the roll
ID = Inside Diameter
T = Media Thickness
 
H

Humble PM

Mostly tolerates architects
That 5" roll is gonna shrink.

Cheap set of calipers, programable calculator and a sharpie, all chained to the laminator, using SolventIJ's magic formula (for the calculator, not the chaining)
 
jfiscus

jfiscus

Rap Master
We use a roller wheel on our slitter, should be able to use one for a laminator the same way I'd think. Just add a bit more for the webbing.
 
E

ewded

.
Or just use your eyes to compare print/lam roll thickness, you can't trust the winding machine for these rolls, they won't be accurate to the banana
 
JBurton

JBurton

Signtologist
cmoist said:
I've thought about this. Was thinking about trying something like this and running it off the roller.

Or you could build your own:

DIY Measuring Wheel using Arduino and Rotary Encoder – Circuit Schools

www.circuitschools.com www.circuitschools.com
Click to expand...

1686692388755.png
That's a mighty pricey/high tech solutions to a low tech problem. Buy one of these, put it in contact with the silicone roller that doesn't move, for me, under the machine, you'll just have to bend over to reset it and record the readout.

The problem with measuring it is the amount of waste to load it will constantly throw this number off, if you load and unload for lots of short runs, it's not too useful to be off by 2' every load, but it's better than what I do when I suspect it's not enough laminate... throw it in the plotter and run out the needed amount, then respool it all and load it in the laminator.
 
D

DAVID MARSHALL

New Member
All you need is a set of digital vernier calipers set to metric and a calculator.

Step 1. Measure the thickness of the remaining media on the roll.
Step 2. Measure the thickness of the laminate
Step 3. Divide Step 1 by Step 2, that will give you the number of turns of media on the roll.
Step 4. Multply the number of turns by the circumference of the core (usually 240mm) and that's your answer. Note that it's more accurate as you get closer to the end of the roll but worst case scenario it will show about a metre more than actual for a nearly full roll.
There is also a neat shortcut you can use for media that is around 0.24mm thick (most SAV). In this case, the measurement at step one is also the length of the media on the roll.
You knew there was a reason that the rest of the world went metric.
 
I

IndySignPro

New Member
I know I am gonna go way out in the weeds on this one but... The roll starts at 150 feet, and if we laminate something that's 8 feet long or 20 feet long or whatever... we subtract that from the the 150... next time we subtract again until we don't have any left... then we start over...
 
JBurton

JBurton

Signtologist
IndySignPro said:
I know I am gonna go way out in the weeds on this one but... The roll starts at 150 feet, and if we laminate something that's 8 feet long or 20 feet long or whatever... we subtract that from the the 150... next time we subtract again until we don't have any left... then we start over...
Click to expand...
This is a solid strategy, much less room for error in subtraction vs formulas, but it takes diligence and work on the front end.
 
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