GFP 663 TH Troubleshooting Help

[WRAPPED Studio]

Our company just recently purchased a GFP 663TH Laminator with a top heat roller to begin producing our own facemounted prints and cut out the middleman. This forum has been extremely helpful in navigating all the trouble shooting and issues we've been having. We were initially having trouble with dust and debris getting in the prints but were able to mitigate it with some deep cleanings of our workshop as well as having anti static wire and raised humidity within the room.

Our issue now is when we stick the print to the acrylic, the top and side edges of the facemount come out perfectly but the bottom edge (final section to come out of the laminator) keeps having around 1-4 air bubbles all near the center of the edge. We just don't understand how this keeps occurring specifically in this certain section. I would like to believe this is due to the excess bleed getting caught on the exit rail and possibly lifting the edge up slightly so air gets trapped inside??? We have also tried using a heat gun but seems like once the print is on the acrylic the air bubbles do not want to move anywhere. We then decide to pop the bubbles but then it leaves the front of the facemount looking greasy and smudgy where the air bubbles used to be almost as if the adhesive is not wanting to stick properly anymore.

Another issue we keep having is when laminating the actual print to stick onto the acrylic. It doesn't happen every single time but when we try to laminate the print we see instant bubbling either on the top left or top right of the print as its going through the machine. Sometimes the bubbles are small enough that we can get away with using a heat gun and having them disappear, but recently the bubbles have increased in amount and size. I will include an image of the problem.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to deal with this, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jfiscus]

Normally, problems like this are related to incorrect pressure being used on the laminator.
I would also look into what clear vinyl film you are using, as some are better for this type of application than others. (we use 3M 8150)
There is also a way to check the nip of the laminator and adjust it using a piece of regular paper.

 

[WRAPPED Studio]

Normally, problems like this are related to incorrect pressure being used on the laminator.
I would also look into what clear vinyl film you are using, as some are better for this type of application than others. (we use 3M 8150)
There is also a way to check the nip of the laminator and adjust it using a piece of regular paper.

When laminating I usually run the prints at the highest pressure possible which is 20. Should I go lower?
In terms of vinyl we are using the LexJet Optically Clear Permanent Adhesive if you are familiar with it.
Would the nip adjustment be in correlation with those bubbles appearing in the laminated print?

 

[Graphic Extremes]

I have the same laminator, actually a couple of them. It should be factory programed to run a pressure of 10 or 11. If you hit the arrow down button at the bottom with the multiple arrows, it will go to the correct pressure..

If for some reason it doesn't there is a setting to set it so that it will automatically go to the correct pressure to laminate.. I use this setting for everything unless I am laminating a thicker substrate.

 

[MarkSnelling]

By looks you are absolutely applying way too much pressure. Think of a roller pin in your kitchen....if you press really hard on the handles (sides) then the middle is going to bow up...the same is true on your laminator where all of the pressure is being applied on the sides.....this explains (usually) why the bubbles are primarily in the middle and not on the sides. This is made dramatically worse when you've got something as hard as acrylic in the middle....Back the pressure way down and you should see the issues in the middle go away. In order to not waste that expensive material and acrylic, test it on the back of the sheets you already ruined. You just need a little bit of pressure and the adhesive will do the rest.

Also - are you using leaders and tails? You cannot stop at all when using optically clear adhesive. If you aren't taping a 2 or 3" leader and tail then that will help. If this makes no sense, you are welcome to call me and I'll walk you through it.

 

[WRAPPED Studio]

Well we were able to stop the bubbles appearing on the laminated print. We have been running and laminating prints all day to absolute perfection.

Now the bad. We keep having the same issue little tiny air bubbles come through when we apply the image to the acrylic. We have tried popping some and pressing down on some to limited success (some smooth out completely, while others release most of the trapped air while still keeping some of the air in and then when we remove the protective liner on the acrylic the part of the air bubble that is still trapped inside looks like a grease smudge where the adhesive wouldn't stick properly). We have face mounted a couple 30 x 30s with a pressure reading of 10 on the machine and the bubbles were small enough to smooth out on their own but our recent run of 36 x 36s keeps having the same issue to a much larger extent. The issue keeps appearing in the center of the print and some of the bottom edge (last edge to come out of the laminator) of the acrylic. I have included some images below that demonstrate the issue.

 

[Graphic Extremes]

Is the vinyl laying on the acrylic before being rolled on. make sure the vinyl is staying off of the acrylic until the roller actually presses it on.. use a longer leader to keep the vinyl on the role...

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

You need to reduce your pressure, basically get the roller to touch in the center then down a little more for the crown to flatten.

Run dead center of the machine and keep the end of your print as long as your roller diameter 5-6".

We have the 663TH also and it is rock solid if you understand how it applies pressure. You need a longer tail because when there is a pressure change the roller slightly lifts and causes air bubbles, but if you have a longer tail you can hold it tight to the roll and prevent slipping.

 

[WRAPPED Studio]

You need to reduce your pressure, basically get the roller to touch in the center then down a little more for the crown to flatten.

Run dead center of the machine and keep the end of your print as long as your roller diameter 5-6".

We have the 663TH also and it is rock solid if you understand how it applies pressure. You need a longer tail because when there is a pressure change the roller slightly lifts and causes air bubbles, but if you have a longer tail you can hold it tight to the roll and prevent slipping.

Thank you Christian I will try this method now. I just wasted about 9 feet of media and adhesive film trying to get this right with some previous methods.