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.