Bubbles and issues on thicker substrates!
We have two cold laminators and they both have play in the top roller that I'm not sure should be there. They are:
1.) Royal Sovereign RSC-1650C
2.) GBC-1064WF
We are mounting black vinyl on a 1/4" thick piece of glass and we are getting bubbles. My key production employee believes it is simply a lack of force. The laminator will not apply enough physical pressure to "push out the bubbles". It is "worn out". He routinely sets the machine for a lower thickness than the actual substrate for mounting or laminating. More force is better, according to him. Here is my question. When you set your laminator on it's thickest setting (1/2"?), or even next to thickest setting, grab the top roller and lift. Our roller moves up 3/16" or so on both sides. You can move it up and down, but once it goes up, it is solidly in place. Removing the end cap, you can see there is some play there when the roller is moved up and down with your hands. When you get to the tighter settings, the play is gone. Is this normal? The exact same thing is happening with the GBC laminator, leading me to believe this is the way they all work and our problem is with differential pressure or a roller issue (just had this one recoated.) Could it be that both of these machines have some wear and this play developed over time and is actually the cause of our problems? The thicker the material, the more likely we are to have issues, it seems. I am hoping a few good samaritans out there might be willing to do this experiment and will share the results. This is driving us nuts and I feel like it is a matter of smooth, even pressure and NOT a matter of more force always being better. I just need to confirm if our machine is behaving as it should and we just need to take more time to calibrate the pressure. Thanks in advance for your input!
We have two cold laminators and they both have play in the top roller that I'm not sure should be there. They are:
1.) Royal Sovereign RSC-1650C
2.) GBC-1064WF
We are mounting black vinyl on a 1/4" thick piece of glass and we are getting bubbles. My key production employee believes it is simply a lack of force. The laminator will not apply enough physical pressure to "push out the bubbles". It is "worn out". He routinely sets the machine for a lower thickness than the actual substrate for mounting or laminating. More force is better, according to him. Here is my question. When you set your laminator on it's thickest setting (1/2"?), or even next to thickest setting, grab the top roller and lift. Our roller moves up 3/16" or so on both sides. You can move it up and down, but once it goes up, it is solidly in place. Removing the end cap, you can see there is some play there when the roller is moved up and down with your hands. When you get to the tighter settings, the play is gone. Is this normal? The exact same thing is happening with the GBC laminator, leading me to believe this is the way they all work and our problem is with differential pressure or a roller issue (just had this one recoated.) Could it be that both of these machines have some wear and this play developed over time and is actually the cause of our problems? The thicker the material, the more likely we are to have issues, it seems. I am hoping a few good samaritans out there might be willing to do this experiment and will share the results. This is driving us nuts and I feel like it is a matter of smooth, even pressure and NOT a matter of more force always being better. I just need to confirm if our machine is behaving as it should and we just need to take more time to calibrate the pressure. Thanks in advance for your input!
