Need advice on GFP 563TH

[mmblarg]

Hey all! Our shop recently upgraded to a new GFP 563TH laminator and are looking for some advice. We've watched all the instructional videos provided by GFP and have scoured Youtube for further information but we aren't finding anything with more detail on troubleshooting wrinkled, bubbly lamination. There's a lot of operator error, need for practice, and tweaking tension/heat/pressure/etc, but we aren't entirely sure what needs to be tweaked when and for which type of problems (wrinkles in laminate/craft paper/print/etc). We've never used a heated laminator before so there's a big learning curve on this one.

Anyone have any tips, tricks, or can direct us to more tutorial materials? Thank you so much in advance!

 

[FatCat]

We've had our GFP 563TH for just over 2 years. (We upgraded from one of the US-TECH AK-600 units that was all manual, no heat assist)

If you are getting bubbly or wrinkled lamination, chances are the pressure isn't set correctly, or you have the laminate and take-up rolls off center causing a twist in the material. When setting pressure, the key is to use the side crank to lower the roller down until it goes slack and stops with very little force. Then you need to see where your hand lever is on the crank and associate it with a clock face - from wherever it stops, forward the crank another 1-hour. *So for instance if you lower the hand crank and it goes slack and the handle itself stops at 4:00, you need to forward it to 5:00 and that should be the correct pressure. Too much more and it causes tunneling down the center of your laminate, much looser and you'll get bubbles and gaps in the laminate.

In regards to heat, you only use heat on calendared materials - NEVER high performance cast or wrap laminates.

Hoping this helps.

 

[mmblarg]

So, we have three of us working on this beast - the first is our production worker, second the owner, and me pulling up the rear with the least amount of experience running it. Tunneling was the first issue right out the gate. The print would dish out from the center and wrinkle on the sides. So the boys threw out the clock face technique - I'm guessing they weren't feeling the touchdown right? So now they just start at touchdown and don't do the one hour increase. Seemed to have helped and the print runs through smoother.

The issue now is vertical creasing in the laminate as it rests on the roller bar. As the bar heats up (we have it set low at 95 and it maxes out at 115 degrees) the laminate ripples, smooths, and then ripples again as we run it. This usually hasn't caused any visible problems on the prints and the boys are chalking it up to "you can get away with more" than our old school cold laminator that needs to be webbed FLAWLESSLY. We're also running into craft paper wrinkles that we can't smooth out without rewebbing the laminate - they tried rewebbing 4 times in a row one day. Our print this morning got trashed - craft paper was wrinkling underneath, got bubbles and silvering right at the start, the print pinched on itself at the end and the laminate ended up with big creases. It was a royal mess. Roll to roll big prints seem to be working out ok, but about 60% of our short one-off prints gets trashed. Unfortunately since I've touched it the least, I mostly see the start and end, not much of the tweaking in between or what all has been messed with up until this point.

We've only run glossy calendered vinyl and laminate through this machine so far. (Tried matte once, but that was a huge failure too, so back to working out the kinks with just the gloss)

 

[mmblarg]

Shoot a picture of the way you are threading your material through the rollers.

This is how we are sitting right now with it off and cold.

 

[mmblarg]

So, have you tried running it without the kraft paper? Honestly I've only used something like that to catch excess laminate on a handful of occasions, typically just pair the widths of the print and lam and trim the edges.
I have an older model of this machine, which is a totally different setup as far as tensioners go.

Right now during winter we have the most time to train and learn, but this also means almost everything we print right now are short one-offs. The owner wasn't a fan of how much vinyl waste we had with leaving a leader on every print to use this machine without craft paper. However, we do have a much easier time when it's roll to roll without craft paper on much longer runs.

 

[Joe House]

I think the key points above are:
Use as little heat as possible
Use as little pressure as possible
and
Use as little craft paper as possible.
Too much heat will soften the laminate making it easier to wrinkle.
Too much pressure will pull the center of the print faster than the outside edges
Craft paper is just another source of wrinkles. Use it only when you have to.

We sell a lot of GFP laminators. They are great machines. They are really meant to run roll to roll. I've run complete 50yd rolls of sample prints for shows without problems. I tell our customers that if your print touches the ground when you start laminating, you should mount it on a core and feed from underneath. The longer dwell time on the roller using this path helps eliminate wrinkles. Also, make sure that you are centering the prints on the laminator. Everything should be run down the center. The rollers are slightly crowned, which is why too much pressure pulls the center more.

The owner shouldn't think of the leaders and tails as waste. They should be considered part of the job and bill accordingly. They really do make up for it with a smoother workflow.

Good Luck

 

[Charlie J]

Get rid of the craft paper, turn the heat off. Rewatch the videos.

 

[karst41]

Hey all! Our shop recently upgraded to a new GFP 563TH laminator and are looking for some advice. We've watched all the instructional videos provided by GFP and have scoured Youtube for further information but we aren't finding anything with more detail on troubleshooting wrinkled, bubbly lamination. There's a lot of operator error, need for practice, and tweaking tension/heat/pressure/etc, but we aren't entirely sure what needs to be tweaked when and for which type of problems (wrinkles in laminate/craft paper/print/etc). We've never used a heated laminator before so there's a big learning curve on this one.

Anyone have any tips, tricks, or can direct us to more tutorial materials? Thank you so much in advance!

You need to adjust the rollers.

One tip I received is with a water base pen or china marker measure and mark dead center of the top roller.
I run the roller and mark all the way around the roller

Get a 10' piece of print film and make a line dead center across the 10' length.
You run this piece back and forth. Adjust one side or the other in small increments until
it is Perfect.

If your laminator is really out of whack then use a pull scale to quickly get it aligned
then run the 10' piece.

Rule is a 50 yard roll should laminate with no drift at all.
owned rollers like RS will gently sway back and forth about .125"
When you are laminating 3m 86519 onto inked IJ 180c. your laminator better be right.

Save that 10' piece so you can check the laminator once a month.

 

[ikarasu]

Right now during winter we have the most time to train and learn, but this also means almost everything we print right now are short one-offs. The owner wasn't a fan of how much vinyl waste we had with leaving a leader on every print to use this machine without craft paper. However, we do have a much easier time when it's roll to roll without craft paper on much longer runs.

So do you leave the laminator down 24/7 so you don't have to re-attach the laminate? I know newer machines are better and don't get a "flat spot" as often... but it'd still worry me.

I do a lot of short runs as well. for anything under 10 FT I lay the print down flat on the 4x8 table infront of the laminate... spin off overlaminate that matches the size of the print, then use it like a stationary rolls roller. you get maybe an inch of waste that way. It doesn't have to always be on the roll to laminate.


That... or use an extra 6" of material at the start of your print... then when your print is done laminating, cut it off the laminator and leave the 3-4" sticking out the front. When you do another few FT... do the same, tape it to the 3" leader you have and you're good to go. most of the time depending on what printer you have, you have 6-12" of waste anyways.

Kraft paper is thin and it usually causes slipping / wrinkling... We've never had good success on any machine using kraft paper for a long length.

 

[Bob Elliott]

Make sure your laminator is attached to the stand properly. The front of the cabinets need to be flush with the stand where they contact each other. If one side is slightly back and the other side is hanging over, the bottom supply shaft will be out of tram with the rollers. If you have any questions call Gfp at 800.986.2005.