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Suggestions GFP cold roll laminator

Geneva Olson

Expert Storyteller
I have a crazy elementary sign school question. I have a line going across the drum of my laminator. It it's indented it looks like I could rub it off. I attempted to wipe it with a white glove. But I really wanted to know if I can use a bit of alcohol or something to clean it off with.

Thanks!
 

Geneva Olson

Expert Storyteller
I have a crazy elementary sign school question. I have a line going across the drum of my laminator. It it's indented it looks like I could rub it off. I attempted to wipe it with a white glove. But I really wanted to know if I can use a bit of alcohol or something to clean it off with.

Thanks!
I had a feeling alcohol would dry it out. So I was trying to figure out what else I could use.
 

netsol

Premium Subscriber
we have used alcohol on rubber parts, through 3 or 4 different service businesses in 3 or 4 different industries, since 1970.
to each his own. i would never use simple green on a rubber part.certainly not on a laminator that will be coming in contact with a finished piece of work, but if it works for you great
 

Steenland

Old Member
Have I been doing it wrong? Decades ago, when I first started laminating, I was instructed to clean the rollers with 99% isopropyl alcohol because it evaporates quickly. I've been using it on both my laminators all this time and they seem OK.

If the rollers are just dusty I use scraps of PSA vinyl to lift off the dust, like a lint roller. But when they get adhesive on them, I use the alcohol.
 

Joseph44708

I Drink And I Know Things
I too have been using 99% Alcohol on all of my rubber.
From the rollers on my sheet fed presses, pinch rollers on the graphtec, Royal Sovereign laminator rollers and the Vaccum mat on the flat bed graphtec cutter. I have Never had any problems with it drying the rubber out.
 

akuarela

New Member
Same here, I’ve been using isopropyl alcohol on the rollers for a long time. I almost wash them with that and a low lint paper towel and get all the junk off. My laminator is Drytac and the rollers are reddish.
 

netsol

Premium Subscriber
steenland,
you were not taught snything wrong.
in the 1970's we went through training for ampex broadcast video recording ewuipment, as wel, as sony, panasonic, jvc and nec industrial machines. always. isopropyl. thr same when we serviced noritsu photo processors. the same with all the brands of sign euipment we have serviced. i cn not say FOR SURE , that every brand of wide format printer and plotter recommends isopropyl on rubber parts BUT EVERY OTHER INDUSTRY IN THE WORLD DOES.
 

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
From all my time in the automotive industry, alcohol and rubber doesn't mix. But, According to the GFP manual they recommend cleaning the rollers with 70% Isopropyl and Following up with water.
 

netsol

Premium Subscriber
christian,

it's funny you mention rinsing with water. (distilled?) it is 4:16 am and i am running keurig flush through one of the home coffee makers. if i use our garden hose to rinse the cars, my black jaguar gets coated with white calcium residue (not to mention the garbage in our water)


it may well be a good idea to flush with water, (we don't) but i would lean towards distilled and skip the mineral deposits
 

Geneva Olson

Expert Storyteller
I think I'm even more confused now. LOL. The line is a discoloration on the drum and it does seem to leave a "mark" on the lamination. But it looks more like the fissures that will disappear if we just put some heat on it. So it's not a problem in the final products. I just don't like it there.
 
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