Hot Laminate with Aqueous Ink

[Splescia82]

BigFishDM - THANK YOU!

 

[BigfishDM]

BigFishDM - THANK YOU!

No problem, let me know when your ready to see prices on the best color bond in the world. lol

 

[skdave]

Hi - I'm currently using the HP Designjet 5500 with dye-based ink and using cold, pressure-sensitive laminate. I find cold laminate to be very expensive. I want to switch to hot if I can. I'm only making temporary signage that will be tossed after about one week.

When researching laminators, I came across a manufacturer that told me heat from a laminator can cause oils from the dye to come through and keep the laminate from sticking. He called it "De-lamination." He wanted to sell me an eco-solvent printer instead.

Has anyone had this problem? I'm looking into either the GBC Titan 1244 or the Ledco 44" Duel Hot roll/mounter. Both machines have hot and cold capabilities.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

-Sara

Sara
Why are you worried about laminting when you are tossing them out after one week of use? Alot of work for nothing.

 

[Splescia82]

My employer thinks it looks nice...LOL you're right though! I guess it helps to protect the signs for shipping too.

 

[oakcitysigns]

Soldiers... I wish I thought of that at the time.

The adhesive we used was on a roll with a release liner. Basically really big and sticky, two-sided tape. If I remember correctly, we ordered from Drytac.

Never had a problem with delamination

 

[sjm]

Hi - I'm currently using the HP Designjet 5500 with dye-based ink and using cold, pressure-sensitive laminate. I find cold laminate to be very expensive. I want to switch to hot if I can. I'm only making temporary signage that will be tossed after about one week.

When researching laminators, I came across a manufacturer that told me heat from a laminator can cause oils from the dye to come through and keep the laminate from sticking. He called it "De-lamination." He wanted to sell me an eco-solvent printer instead.

Has anyone had this problem? I'm looking into either the GBC Titan 1244 or the Ledco 44" Duel Hot roll/mounter. Both machines have hot and cold capabilities.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

-Sara

It's the additives in the aqueous inks, specifically glycol to assist with drying times and the increased printer speeds. You'll notice the 5500 has a dryer built in where the 5000 did not.

As someone else pointed out Heavyweight Bonds work well but you'll also find many matte vs gloss media will laminate well with heat too.

The reason for this is that unlike a gloss media which is for an example a highly polished finish a matte media has hills and valleys per say allowing the adhesive to bite.

It's my experience with a little bit of testing using the right heat temperature should yield success.

 

[jmcnicoll]

I print and hot lam Aqueous ink all the time. We print on a 5mil polyester film and put a 5 mil textured hot lam on top and either a 3 mil lam or a 10 mil backer on the back side. Works great, no problems yet, been doing it for more and a year. Hot lams go down at about 200 degrees F.

Jim

 

[sjm]

I think, I may have misunderstood the original posters inquiry. You are correct hot lams go down to 200 degrees F and even as low as 185 degrees F. Those are considered as HeatSet and are considerably more expensiveness than the Thermal Laminates I was alluding to, that operate at temperatures as high as 240 degrees F.

Water boils at 212 degrees F and with aqueous inks that can be problematic but the gains can be significant when you find the right recipe.

 

[soundhound]

Let me jump right in here and tell you what I do with my HP 5500 and Titan 110 laminator.

I print to a water-resistant, pressure sensitive media (I like "cheap & tacky" best because it is matte finish, but there are also polypropylenes that are even more waterproof).

I cold mount the ps media right to foam board or even white gator, trim & sell.

These will handle rain & snow for short term, look great indoors until the dye ink fades (I changed to all-UV) and I sell them for as much as the local copy shop gets for cold laminated.

For lamination, I use the 3 mil lustre finish ps from KAPCO because it is really really cheap. I keep a little top end laminate around for museum quality stuff, and that includes some heat setting stuff.

I also keep some 5 mil hot lam and also a hot lam backer around. I use these on cheap polypropylene to turn it into a high gloss, stiff poster which I grommet. I charge plenty for this, and it is quite popular.

For really fancy stuff like rollups & bannerstands I usually just use the KAPCO ps laminate on polypropylene, or even just print to scrim vinyl banner and put that in the rollup.

I use ps mounting adhesive for gator & sintra & even corplast, and for fancy jobs I print to a microporous paper like Omega or HP PhotoQuality Instant Dry, then overlaminate with the cheap KAPCO ps.


I find the GBC Titan 43" and my 42" HP5500 pretty much allow me to offer everything that my customers want. I don't do wraps.

 

[soundhound]

I just want to add that I have NEVER had an issue with heat affecting my hp prints in the laminating process. I believe that those who do are using thin laminates that would work better on a hot-shoe laminator than a silicon roller device. I use 5 mil mainly, but have found that with a little practice that 3 mil is also workable... but these are not really all that cheap compared to Kapco ps laminate.

 

[Splescia82]

Thanks for your input everyone. I went with the Ledco 44" Digital laminator and couldn't be more happy with it. It works fine with prints from the HP 5500 inkjet. I'm using HMI board, HP photo gloss paper, and a 3 mil laminate heated to 250 degrees. Everything melts and adheres together perfectly.

Overall, since switching to heated laminates, we're spending less than a third of what we used to spend on cold laminates. What we save in cost for supplies will pay for the laminater in about one year.

 

[JR Digital]

runs fine with hot lam, no problems, One side works fine, you don't have to encapsulate,