Laminating long prints - 100ft+

[GraphicsSource]

Hey guys,

We're running about 100' of poster paper today to laminate with dry erase on our drytac laminator. We know how to operate the laminator and everything but was just looking for tips to keep the material from walking. We try to jog it so it's all even but that gets pretty tough with so much material.

Any suggestions/tips you guys have discovered would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[TXFB.INS]

when we do long runs with out Drytac we have found adding tension to the feed in helps A LOT.

loose wind the material, lay it in the tray and then place an empty thick walled cardboard core on the spooled off portion, this keeps tension as it feeds into the machine.
and make extra sure that the material is correctly lined up / feeding square into the machine

 

[Jester1167]

We always made sure we left enough room between prints on the roll so, if it walked or started to develop wrinkles we could cut between the prints and start again. On a 100' print I would make 5 to 10, 6" breaks.

I found that adding tension to the prints and then slowly backing off helped more than adding tension to the laminate, especially something rigid like poly or dry erase.

 

[AF]

I find that roll to roll with minimal tension is ideal. If your laminator doesn't have automatic tension then simply reduce the tension periodically through the run as the feed rolls get smaller in diameter.

 

[Jester1167]

I guess I forgot to mention we only add tension when developing a problem. That way we could make it to the next break in prints without loosing any prints and start fresh. Like AF, if everything is running well no tension is needed to run half a roll or more.

 

[GraphicsSource]

Thanks for the input...I've noticed that when doing roll to roll the tension on the print seems to get off and the roll will unwind itself faster than its feeding into the rollers causing it to go onto the floor...will more tension fix this?

 

[AF]

You should always have some tension so the supply shafts do not freewheel. As the supply rolls get smaller in diameter during the run, the tension should be increased to restore the effective torque on the web.

Too much tension causes a lot of problems. The optimal setting would be to have enough tension so as not to stretch the laminate. The printed media can usually handle a lot more tension. You can tell by which way the material is curling whether the laminate or media is over tensioned.

 

[GraphicsSource]

We just got done with the prints...no matter what we do the print always seems to walk about an inch to the left every 30' or so...can't seem to figure it out. Any thoughts?

 

[AF]

Level the machine.

 

[nate]

I don't have any tips for you, but I do have a question--- Why does this thread exist?

Every day among everything else we laminate, we run at least one 300' roll of Avery 1005, quite often two or three, through our laminator. Roll to Roll. No issues. We have three of the Seal 62 basic machines-- nothing fancy. We don't use any tricks, sleds, chants-- anything. We load up the rolls, hit forward and come back ten minutes later.

I can't believe that we're able to do it and so many others aren't. Are other machines harder to use? Aren't setup correctly? Something else?

As I say anytime I see a thread like this I get curious as to why something that should be so simple can actually be quite hard and frustrating.

 

[AF]

Not everyone has a high end laminator so it becomes a fight to get results. We have an AGL and like your seal it is a simple matter of load and go.

Wiping out a roll of prints every 30 feet eventually negates any savings of a lesser laminator. I think laminating is the riskiest part of print / laminate / cut workflows and therefore should be where a larger part of the budget is spent.