Laying on application tape with laminator

[Nicedeal]

Hello,

A couple years back I bought a Master (ustech?) 63" cold laminator, and it's just been sitting around here ever since.. Thought I could use it to lay down application tape on long jobs, but I need some tips! Do you prefeed some vinyl to see if it's tracking straight through the laminator? Any good videoes on this (and laminating) would be greatly appreciated! The manual doesn't mention application tape.

 

[PRS Bryan]

I have been using a cold laminator for application tape for about a year.

I don't know of any online resources for information. I have been learning by trial and error so all I have is personal experience.

It really is not that different from using a laminate. The application tape is a bit stiffer than lam so it feeds well.

The only thing that was a challenge for me was keeping even tension across the whole sheet while it was being fed. If I was slightly off then the vinyl would bunch up and create folds in the middle of the pre-mask, not good. It is rather frustrating to have a print ruined so late in the process.

What I do now to mitigate the possibility of an uneven feed is I have the print tightly rolled when I feed it in. I will continue to keep even tension on the roll with my hands for the entire process.

Good luck. If you stumble upon some tricks let me know, I could use them.

 

[Hicalibersigns]

YouTube is your friend. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls1kgSujqZc

This is the machine we use, 65" model. It gets the crap run out of it every day. We couldn't do business without it.

Here's one specifically dealing with pre mask. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjmktmI2iDw

 

[SIGNTIME]

yes you can use it for mask and is basically the same as using it for laminate, not sure about your specific laminator but on my royal it works awesome... once you get the right tension it shouldn't get creases in it but even if it does usually it can still be laid down without issue as long as the crease is only in the mask and not the vinyl

 

[Nicedeal]

Thanks! After some hours of messing around with it, it finally came out right.. Also used the machine for mounting to aluminium boards, and it works great!

 

[HIGHSPEEDGRAPHIX]

I use it for anything and everything if it makes for better quality and speeds up production!