Heat assist or cold roll

[Warhog42]

Looking to update my laminator to a roll to roll laminator. I do mostly vehicle graphics.
Looking at a royal sovereign. Dealer thinks cold would be fine and I save 2k. But hate to buy one and feel like 2 years I need heat.
Thoughts ?

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[papabud]

i use a heat assisted one and it helps a lot. somethings needs the heat turned off. others it helps lay down nice and smooth.
i feel like its a value added feature even if you only rarely use it.

 

[rjssigns]

Not sure is this will help. I run a Royal Sovereign cold laminator in the shop and at school. Both are solid performers. Can't comment on the heat aspect as I have no experience. No issues with silvering, but I run both at speed 1.

 

[Active Sign]

We've been running a cold Royal for the past 5 years with no issues. We had a heated GBC before and rarely used the heat. If you have the money get the nicer one.


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[Bly]

We have low heat on our Seal but with wrap lam it's really not needed.
Doesn't make much difference on cheaper films either to be honest.

 

[Reveal1]

Looking to update my laminator to a roll to roll laminator. I do mostly vehicle graphics.
Looking at a royal sovereign. Dealer thinks cold would be fine and I save 2k. But hate to buy one and feel like 2 years I need heat.
Thoughts ?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

We also use a Seal (Base 62) w/ assist, but unlike Bly's experience , we find ourselves using heat fairly frequently to eliminate silvering, particularly on less expensive calendared films for. Your question reminds me of the choices I made seven years ago when I started my business. I generally purchased in the 'sweet spot' i.e. paying a little more for features I didn't have to have at the time but not going all out top line. Never regretted those decisions except for the one exception of cheaping out on my Keencut and not buying something that could cut the full length of an 8 ft. sheet. - Kick myself several times a week for that.

 

[Warhog42]

We also use a Seal (Base 62) w/ assist, but unlike Bly's experience , we find ourselves using heat fairly frequently to eliminate silvering, particularly on less expensive calendared films for. Your question reminds me of the choices I made seven years ago when I started my business. I generally purchased in the 'sweet spot' i.e. paying a little more for features I didn't have to have at the time but not going all out top line. Never regretted those decisions except for the one exception of cheaping out on my Keencut and not buying something that could cut the full length of an 8 ft. sheet. - Kick myself several times a week for that.

Thanks for info. I am starting to think I should save a little more and go heated. That's what I am trying to do. Buy something I don't have to rebut in 2 years. My goal is to have all equipment paid of fast and have 5 years of running. I bought a new Mimaki jv 130/150 and a new Mimaki cg-sr III. And am happy so far with performance. But the daige 55 inch is holding me back I believe

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[Split76]

Thanks for info. I am starting to think I should save a little more and go heated. That's what I am trying to do. Buy something I don't have to rebut in 2 years. My goal is to have all equipment paid of fast and have 5 years of running. I bought a new Mimaki jv 130/150 and a new Mimaki cg-sr III. And am happy so far with performance. But the daige 55 inch is holding me back I believe

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That all equipment paid of fast never worked for me. For the last 16 years i've been buying something new again and again.. .. and again

 

[Warhog42]

That all equipment paid of fast never worked for me. For the last 16 years i've been buying something new again and again.. .. and again

I Been doing less then 2 years and on 3rd printer. Lol

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[Bly]

We also use a Seal (Base 62) w/ assist, but unlike Bly's experience , we find ourselves using heat fairly frequently to eliminate silvering, particularly on less expensive calendared films for. Your question reminds me of the choices I made seven years ago when I started my business. I generally purchased in the 'sweet spot' i.e. paying a little more for features I didn't have to have at the time but not going all out top line. Never regretted those decisions except for the one exception of cheaping out on my Keencut and not buying something that could cut the full length of an 8 ft. sheet. - Kick myself several times a week for that.

We also have the Base 62.
The top roller doesn't really get enough heat going to smooth out our cheap n cheerful calendared lams.
Before that we had an Image 62 Plus that could do hot laminating so you could get the rollers hotter than the Base. That was effective.

 

[papabud]

I Been doing less then 2 years and on 3rd printer

i been doing for years and years and years i retired my old printer 3 years ago. i am only on my second printer in all this time. my old printer will need very little to get it up and running if i ever needed it again.

 

[MikePro]

heat assist. hands-down.
I'm sure guys without it claim they have no issues with silvering, but I'm sure its something they've just gotten used-to. Run laminates with heat assist, and you immediately notice the difference whenever you run it without.

 

[jfiscus]

I use the heat assist on ours all the time, almost every time actually. We run a GFP 563TH laminator here.

 

[Jester1167]

Heat assist can be a benefit but I would worry about the heat allowing the laminate to pre-stretch slightly then the decals will shrink on the vehicle.

Never had a problem with cold laminate on a decent laminator. The silvering will go away in a few days.