Just buy a new laminator?

[pabacker66]

Hi,
We have an old Royal Sovereign RSC-1400C and over the last 2 years, the lamination process has become more and more difficult. Prints always seem to track off to one side or another pretty bad and lately we are getting buckling from our vinyl as it feeds resulting in wrinkles and bubbles in the final product. We inherited the laminator from the previous owners and it has never been serviced. We have tried everything in the manual you can think of along with also taking it apart and trying to adjust the pressure on the sides because I think uneven pressure may be the culprit to our problems. However, even though it helped a little, it has not been a solution. After speaking with Royal Sovereign or "Bell Howell", it looks like it will cost me at a minimum of $100/hr (starting when they leave their door) to have someone come out for service and I don't think they have a location anywhere near us. So now I'm faced with the question of whether or not it would be economical to have them come out or just look for a new laminator. I am looking for your suggestions on what to do and if I should get another laminator, what are your recommendations on models to check out? We are probably looking for a simple (more inexpensive) 55" cold. Thanks.

 

[papabud]

well unless you want to spend the time and effort learning to be a laminator repair man. and sounds like having them come out will be a small fortune. getting a new laminator sounds like a good plan.
i have used many different makes and models over the years. some was pure hell to try and work.
but i must say for the last few years i have been using a seal base 54 and i have never had any issue with it that wasn't caused by me. the other day i ran a roll of 100 feet by 54 inch material through it and it only tracked an 1/8 inch from end to end.
the seal is cold lamination with heat assist which is nice. has a foot peddle for hands free operation also.
we had a road crew out running their giant earth movers for about a month and it shook the whole building like they was driving up and over us. i had to readjust a safety sensor when they was done but thats it.

 

[BigfishDM]

Hi,
We have an old Royal Sovereign RSC-1400C and over the last 2 years, the lamination process has become more and more difficult. Prints always seem to track off to one side or another pretty bad and lately we are getting buckling from our vinyl as it feeds resulting in wrinkles and bubbles in the final product. We inherited the laminator from the previous owners and it has never been serviced. We have tried everything in the manual you can think of along with also taking it apart and trying to adjust the pressure on the sides because I think uneven pressure may be the culprit to our problems. However, even though it helped a little, it has not been a solution. After speaking with Royal Sovereign or "Bell Howell", it looks like it will cost me at a minimum of $100/hr (starting when they leave their door) to have someone come out for service and I don't think they have a location anywhere near us. So now I'm faced with the question of whether or not it would be economical to have them come out or just look for a new laminator. I am looking for your suggestions on what to do and if I should get another laminator, what are your recommendations on models to check out? We are probably looking for a simple (more inexpensive) 55" cold. Thanks.

If you want to keep replacing your laminator every few years then buy cheap, if you want something of high quality with an affordable price tag then check out the GFP line.

 

[rjssigns]

Did you get the tension gauge from RS to set roll pressure? IIRC someone here said they're around 80 bucks. Someone on the forum also built one with a WalMart fish scale. Worth a shot if you haven't done it.

One other thing is if the laminator was used a lot with only narrow material it will create a track in the rollers. That will lead to issues when running wider substrates.

 

[pabacker66]

well unless you want to spend the time and effort learning to be a laminator repair man. and sounds like having them come out will be a small fortune. getting a new laminator sounds like a good plan.
i have used many different makes and models over the years. some was pure hell to try and work.
but i must say for the last few years i have been using a seal base 54 and i have never had any issue with it that wasn't caused by me. the other day i ran a roll of 100 feet by 54 inch material through it and it only tracked an 1/8 inch from end to end.
the seal is cold lamination with heat assist which is nice. has a foot peddle for hands free operation also.
we had a road crew out running their giant earth movers for about a month and it shook the whole building like they was driving up and over us. i had to readjust a safety sensor when they was done but thats it.

Thanks for the info. I will look into that model. Thanks

 

[pabacker66]

Did you get the tension gauge from RS to set roll pressure? IIRC someone here said they're around 80 bucks. Someone on the forum also built one with a WalMart fish scale. Worth a shot if you haven't done it.

One other thing is if the laminator was used a lot with only narrow material it will create a track in the rollers. That will lead to issues when running wider substrates.

It's funny that you mention that, because we actually have been down that road. We found an instructional video on how they test the pressure so we did the same and rigged a fish scale. On paper, it seems to be better, but still experiencing issues. It has improved since doing so, but still isn't right. I just need to create a situation where anyone in my shop can feel comfortable laminating without (within reason) issue. Right now, it's like an anxiety attack every time we run it and I am constantly being pulled from my desk to babysit it as it runs.

 

[jfiscus]

I finally got this shop talked into getting a GFP to replace the aging Seal here. The Seal was only operable by one person and it was always a multi-person job to run a whole-roll through it accurately. With the GFP almost anyone can run it on their own w/o issues. We bought ours right before Christmas and I would say that conservatively we have run 500 rolls through it (almost all full rolls) since then and the only issues were operator errors.

 

[papabud]

you had problems with your seal? my seal is one of the best laminators i have ever used. it runs and runs and runs. but wear and tare does take it toll on any machine. mine is maybe 5 years old but still looks and runs like it is brand new.

 

[jfiscus]

you had problems with your seal? my seal is one of the best laminators i have ever used. it runs and runs and runs. but wear and tare does take it toll on any machine. mine is maybe 5 years old but still looks and runs like it is brand new.

It sure was an older laminator with a million miles on it, but it still laminated. However, it was a pain to web up, and then you had to manually apply pressure (and run it slow) through the whole run to get it to track straight enough to not have to reprint any panels. And then, there was no take up roll feature, so someone had to roll it back up as it fed out onto a table. We are primarily a wrap shop so almost everything we print is a whole roll or multiple rolls.

I cam from another shop that had a GFP there, and when I first came here this is the #1 bottleneck I saw. It took a while to convince the owner, but since the upgrade you wouldn't believe how much faster rolls get through that department then before. Cutting the labor costs alone saves 75% at least every roll. (Think how quick that adds up to pay for that upgrade)

 

[Charlie J]

It sure was an older laminator with a million miles on it, but it still laminated. However, it was a pain to web up, and then you had to manually apply pressure (and run it slow) through the whole run to get it to track straight enough to not have to reprint any panels. And then, there was no take up roll feature, so someone had to roll it back up as it fed out onto a table. We are primarily a wrap shop so almost everything we print is a whole roll or multiple rolls.

I cam from another shop that had a GFP there, and when I first came here this is the #1 bottleneck I saw. It took a while to convince the owner, but since the upgrade you wouldn't believe how much faster rolls get through that department then before. Cutting the labor costs alone saves 75% at least every roll. (Think how quick that adds up to pay for that upgrade)

Jfiscus, which model GFP did you buy? I'm in the same boat as pabacker66. I have a royal sovereign that i'm tired of fighting with. I'm very interested in making a purchase on a 60"+ laminator soon.

 

[Andy D]

We're in the same boat, our rollers are screwed up by a neglectful employee...
We're planning to keep the old laminator and just use it for pre-masking.

 

[BigfishDM]

Just want to remind everyone looking for a new laminator to give me a chance at quoting you on it if your looking at GFP.

 

[jfiscus]

Jfiscus, which model GFP did you buy? I'm in the same boat as pabacker66. I have a royal sovereign that i'm tired of fighting with. I'm very interested in making a purchase on a 60"+ laminator soon.

GFP 563th, with heat assist, but I usually leave the temp right around 110 degrees. Runs smooth as silk.

 

[SeanMcM]

We have 2 Royal Sovereign heat assisted laminators, one was out of action when i arrived 5 years ago and we only use it for applying vinyl to large panels, the other is our daily driver and i often do large runs thru the laminator i have done full 50m ( 164 feet ) runs thru it multiple times and usually do not run into any problems, i do not use the linner/or backing sheet or feeding sheet what ever you like to call it because i never rarely have any need for it since it hardly runs off. I have herd bad things about the Sovereign Laminators but fortunately for me they have been fine.