Questions on working with warm laminator.

[timstudio]

I have a Biedermann E65W warm laminator, capable up heating up to 60 deg. Celcius.

Now I'm experiencing some blistering in the lamination. What are the correct settings regarding the temperature and pressure?
The pressure is controlled manually by lowering the upper roll.

Untill now I have been working with approx 40 degr. Celcius and lowering the upper roll untill I feel some resistance (touching the lower roll) and than adding a little bit more for thightness.

It's not contamination or gassing. The blistering also occurs on non printed area's.

Used laminate is 75µm polymeric .

 

[crystalcoastgraphics]

What kind of material and laminate are you using? Are you using like a kraft paper to feed it through? Does that machine not have a pressure indicator? Once the machine is running, you can look at the waves your getting as the laminate goes across the top roller, and see if you need more or less pressure. If you are getting waves going inward and more of a pucker in the vinyl, then back off the pressure some. Sounds like more of an uneven pressure type thing to me or if your using kraft paper.

 

[timstudio]

It's not waving, it's blistering. Little blisters of approx. 1mm on random parts of the material. If I laminate 1 meter I have for example like 20 little blisters randomly across the print. Never in the same spot, so it's not in the rollers.

I print on different kind of media (monomeric and polymeric) but always use a polymeric laminate. Prints are made with a Roland Sp300i.

 

[FatCat]

Looks like dust beneath the lam? I know this time of year starts causing trouble with laminate because of the dry air and static...

 

[MikePro]

definitely laminate contamination. looks like dust to me.
it takes a LOT of heat to make vinyl blister... like cooking it with a heat gun just shy of catching fire.

 

[2B]

definitely laminate contamination. looks like dust to me.
it takes a LOT of heat to make vinyl blister... like cooking it with a heat gun just shy of catching fire.

+1

you will smell the vinyl if it starts to blister, burn etc... and it will turn yellow/brown before anyhting else happens

 

[timstudio]

It got worse lately, indeed since the outside went down. So I guess it is static contamination. Damn.

 

[player]

You can use swiffer floor mop refills to collect dust, or body shop tack rags that are coated in bees wax to make dust stick to it.

Also if you wipe the floor with a damp mop and wipe the machine down with a water and isopropyl alcohol it will tame the static.
you can even lightly wipe the lam as it comes off the roll to help eliminate static.

You need a very clean environment.

 

[kanini]

On our Biedermann it's important to feed longer prints beneath the metal bar/roller as when you laminate roll-to-roll. Otherwise it starts buckling easily and you get bubbles, but if you feed it beneath the roller it works great even with full 140-150 ft. rolls! Do you have any pics, that would help a lot.

 

[timstudio]

So I have to get the contamination part under control. What about the temperature settings. Got in installed by the dealer, worked fine, but I have searched a lot on the forum and google, and can't find anything on temperature settings for my setup. I know it will do nothing for the contamination part, but I like to know my setup, and the proper settings for it.

Is 35 degr. Celcius a good operating temperature, and how much pressure should I use? I tried a couple of meters on different settings (35 deg. low pressure/more pressure, 55 deg. low pressure/more pressure) and didn't really notice a difference.

I am new to the printing business and after tweaking and experimenting with the Roland a lot, I got from crappy results to perfect results. It's real nice to know the effects of the changes and get to know the inside of my equipment. Can't find any real settings 'knowledge' for the laminator though, and my own experiments don't show real differences in output. The manual sums it up to 'if it doesn't work lower the temp, if that doesn't work raise the temp, if both don't work...screw you.'

 

[player]

I have a cold laminator. So I would think the lower heat settings will be fine. The problem that occurs with cold laminating is called "silvering" or a whole bunch of very tiny air bubbles that give the print a silvery look. These go away after a day or two if it is not too sever. This happens mainly when going too fast.

So the heat will solve silvering and also help activate the glue.

I would go easy on the heat to start. Too much heat can cause vinyl to stretch.

 

[MikePro]

I buy lint-free gloves and keep them handy near my laminator. Once I set my web and laminating my print I then stop the machine, put on my gloves, and "wax-on wax-off" as the laminator operates. Removes dust and helps keep my print from rippling as it passes into the nip because I gently push the vinyl from center-out to aid it's flow.

 

[timstudio]

Yup,

started whiping the prints with gloves just before it hits the laminate and no problems any more. So it indeed is the dry weather and build up static on the material.

Thanks!

 

[Asuma01]

Sounds like you need a humidifier!