Hot or Cold Lamination

[MrPrint]

Hi, I'm new to the wide format / sign world. I have just installed a new Roland VG54" Solvent printer and am looking to expanding into Vehicle wraps / large prints and so forth. I am trying to decided on what will be the best fit for my small shop for a lamination machine a hot or cold laminator. I have a used a Phoneix 44 hot lamination and the time it takes to heat up / mount and cool down can be very time consuming. I'm looking at a GFP 54" cold lamiantor.

Any advise what the more experienced members on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Cold is industry standard. Some machines will have something called heat assist, and it is used to cut down on silvering but that problem is almost non-existent these days due to better formulated adhesives.

 

[MI Bearcat]

Depends if you need to encapsulate or not. I paid the extra money to get one with heat as we do have customers that bring in posters to be encapsulated. We don't use the heat any other time.

 

[MrPrint]

I'm looking at the Phoenix 44 DHP- does both cold and heat - - Does anyone have experience with this unit? I use the heat mainly for mounting to Foamcore.