Laminator for acrylic?

[Smkmit22]

Hi All,

I have never worked before with a hot/cold laminator. Only liquid.

My question is, what would be the best option for creating acrylic prints in regard to the lamination process? I'm not printing directly to acrylic.

I wanted to use double sided Laminate Film. Which is a cold press laminate. Is this the best technique?

Also noticed that "bizon" offers hybride laminators, support for cold and hot. Any downsides to using such machine?

All info is welcome

Thanks much

 

[netsol]

I am not sure i am following the "hybrid" thing
Any heat assist laminator can support cold lamination by turning the heat down

Generally, the purpose of heat assist is to eliminate silvering. Otherwise you need to wait a day or so for the
Laminate to clear, if you have this issue

 

[Smkmit22]

Thanks for your response.

Regarding the hybride, i saw this :"Professional hot and cold laminating machine of the brand Bizon and type 1600 TH." Assuming it can laminate both cold and hot. But if i understand you correctly, any hot laminator can laminate cold as well?

 

[MikePro]

HUGE fan of using my CWT table for laminating vinyl/prints/films onto up to ~6" acrylic.
I'll even setup rails of scrap material and apply a full sheet to a table full of nested cut letter shapes for channel letters n' such.

To each their own, but I feel it is much easier to have the substrate in a fixed position, with a laminator wheel/gantry that travels across....than your typical laminator that you would feed a substrate-thru.

 

[Smkmit22]

Hi all,

Thanks, I checked, the CWT table looks neat, but it's a bit expensive. I roamed the the forums a bit, and encountered the problem 'silvering' just, like netsol already stated.

What would be a good laminator to get the job done? Any model anyone can recommend, easy to use and not affected by the silvering problem?

Thanks!

 

[ColorCrest]

I'm not printing directly to acrylic.

What type of work / materials, exactly? Signs or art?

 

[Smkmit22]

What type of work / materials, exactly? Signs or art?

I want to create acrylic prints, mount inkjet/eco-solvent poster paper using double sided laminate film to acrylic.
But i'm not sure what laminator works best for these kind of jobs.

We only produce art prints. As stated above, we normally only work with canvas. The only laminate process i know is liquid lamination.

Thanks for any help

 

[ColorCrest]

I want to create acrylic prints, mount inkjet/eco-solvent poster paper using double sided laminate film to acrylic.
But i'm not sure what laminator works best for these kind of jobs.

We only produce art prints. As stated above, we normally only work with canvas. The only laminate process i know is liquid lamination.

Thanks for any help

Typical acrylic art prints do not require heated laminators. Do you have any acrylic art sample prints from any source actually in-hand at this time or have samples of your prints mounted to acrylic at this time? We're talking face-mounted, by the way.

 

[Smkmit22]

Perhaps consider using a clear film with the image reversed, then another layer of white adhesive side material? Optically clear mounting film is tough to utilize in a perfect way, especially on small batch stuff.

It's a bit hard for me to follow, does this mean printing directly to film, add white adhesive (in case you're not using white while printing on film?). The idea is that the print will face upwards which makes it easier to mount to the acrylic, since you can see what you are doing?

Typical acrylic art prints do not require heated laminators. Do you have any acrylic art sample prints from any source actually in-hand at this time or have samples of your prints mounted to acrylic at this time? We're talking face-mounted, by the way.

Also noticed on Youtube most use a cold laminator, but a cold laminator with heat assist is better? Currently I don't have any laminator, or acrylic print. I'm trying to research what I need to start producing them.

 

[netsol]

Thanks for your response.

Regarding the hybride, i saw this :"Professional hot and cold laminating machine of the brand Bizon and type 1600 TH." Assuming it can laminate both cold and hot. But if i understand you correctly, any hot laminator can laminate cold as well?

maybe i am wrong, to me "hot" laminator is similar to the pouch laminators, you do your social security card with.
heat assist is using PSA with adhesive, and the purpose of the heat is to remove small bubbles and cloudiness

there are many on this site who are more experienced than myself, and probably someone else should be answering

 

[greysquirrel]

You don’t need heat for second surface mounting. It’s the hardest thing to do properly. Your profits are made and lost at your finishing department. Technically any roll to roll laminator will be able to assist you but you need to buy the device from a reseller who is experienced and able yo show you the required techniques during your install and training.

 

[edcooleyar]

We do this a lot. You can get optically clear adhesive from most any supplier. Heat assist laminator is a bonus to help the adhesiion on less than smooth papers. Just be sure and do it on a stiff carrier if you first apply the adhesive to the print.

 

[edcooleyar]

Perhaps consider using a clear film with the image reversed, then another layer of white adhesive side material? Optically clear mounting film is tough to utilize in a perfect way, especially on small batch stuff.

This is a great idea, can you suggest a clear film for the reverse print?

 

[Mr. Signboy]

This is a great idea, can you suggest a clear film for the reverse print?

I agree with JBurton. I’ve been printing on clear vinyl and applying to acrylic for years and it works great. Never once needed a hot laminator. Most any brand of clear vinyl will work, you’ll need to mirror the image and laminate with an opaque white film. Then apply subsurface to the acrylic. You can do this with a laminator or do it wet by hand. Either way works.

 

[MikePro]

I don't know if I'm about to blow your mind or not, but have you considered laminating the sheet prior to cutting the faces out? It saves us hours compared to individually covering each face and trimming, not to mention tons less trash and cleanup since you haven't made chips at that point.
We do this with 3m cast vinyls all the time, calendered products or less aggressive adhesives may not hold up as well, but you can always drop the sheet upside down and cut letters mirrored, we just did that for some perf coated letters.

i do that too BUT that wasn't the question AND how would that sheet get laminated to the substrate to begin with?
...i like where you're head is at tho

+1 to cutting upside-down, as I tend to nearly exclusively use upcut bits and anything pre-laminated to the substrate appreciates my efforts.

 

[ColorCrest]

The OP answered my first question and says the product is “art” acrylic as opposed to signs. Different animals.

The art products typically do not print using vinyls but polyesters instead. If the media isn’t imaged using a photographic method, then wide color gamut aqueous printers are used. The face-mounting step is straight forward but done in a very clean environment using common motorized cold laminators. The acrylic is pre-sized and often has polished edges beforehand along with any backer if included. Sometimes the piece may get edge-planed afterwards. It’s a decades-old (1980s) process mostly provided by photo labs, still.

 

[Humble PM]

process mostly provided by photo labs, still.

mostly provided by masochists, still.

 

[Smkmit22]

The face-mounting step is straight forward but done in a very clean environment using common motorized cold laminators.

Yea, I figured this is the best way (for me) as well. Currently looking for a cold laminator with a heat assistant. I think my question is answered. Thanks

 

[Smkmit22]

I was thinking about getting a Chinese machine, costing only +-2000/2500$

Another option would be a seal54, a used one, costing about 2500$ as well.

Don't want to spend tot much yet

 

[MikePro]

seal54 is a tank. as long as there are not cuts in the rollers, chances are its worth the buy.