To heat or not to heat

[Mark H]

I have heard arguments both ways, to buy a heat assist laminator because when laminating printed material whether it's vinyl, Dibond or coroplast, heat assist produces a higher quality product. I've also been told that the benefits of heat assist are minimal and not worth it. What do you think?

 

[Dan360]

I never use heat assist when mounting prints, it can cause stretching and skewing.

For laminating, I do think it helps mainly with cast laminates. Mostly optically clear. I haven't noticed a difference in calendared.

 

[bannertime]

Any silvering we get with calendared vinyl typically is gone by the next day. On a fresh start in the morning, we'll see may get a line running across the first few inches and that's gone in about two days. So we don't do heat assist on that. I'm not even sure we've turned the heat assist on.

 

[2B]

we run a Drytac w/ heat assist, when we first got the laminator it was all about the assist. then those short-run jobs and jobs with quick turnaround had the laminator running without the heat assist as it took too long to get warmed up.

for several years now the heat assist has not been turned on and doubt we will

 

[Solventinkjet]

As everyone above has stated, heat assist has very limited applications these days. Mostly because vinyl manufacturers have perfected their adhesive formulations to prevent silvering. That being said, heat assist is a necessity when laminating UV prints.

 

[FatCat]

We ran a USTech AK-600 for 4-5 years without heat assist. The ONLY time it would have made a difference is during the cold winter months as my shop is block wall and concete and hard to keep heated in the warehouse area. The heat assist on our new GFP 563TH works great on calendared laminates during the cold months, but other than that it isn't used for anything else.

 

[signman315]

As everyone above has stated, heat assist has very limited applications these days. Mostly because vinyl manufacturers have perfected their adhesive formulations to prevent silvering. That being said, heat assist is a necessity when laminating UV prints.

Thats the ticket! Not only is it good for UV prints I find if you turn the heat on low you can crank the speed up and still maintain good quality. Considering too that I’m in upstate NY where winters are cold and mornings at the shop can be brisk haha! Too much heat is terrible for calendared laminates because they will curl up like a mackerel but I personally think it produces a better product especially on certain air egress vinyls, sometimes the egress pattern causes a little silvering. But I’m also just replacing a 8 year old royal sovereign that silvered almost everything haha!

 

[signman315]

We ran a USTech AK-600 for 4-5 years without heat assist. The ONLY time it would have made a difference is during the cold winter months as my shop is block wall and concete and hard to keep heated in the warehouse area. The heat assist on our new GFP 563TH works great on calendared laminates during the cold months, but other than that it isn't used for anything else.

Just put that same GFP in our shop today, sweet unit! Happy laminating haha!

 

[ams]

Heat assist is only needed for certain applications, but I only use cold.

 

[eahicks]

I use heat assist only with matte laminates and polycarbonate laminates. Helps reduce the silvering inherent with these two.

 

[AF]

Heat assist actually helps when laminating cheap vinyls with irregular surface quality.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

As everyone above has stated, heat assist has very limited applications these days. Mostly because vinyl manufacturers have perfected their adhesive formulations to prevent silvering. That being said, heat assist is a necessity when laminating UV prints.

I don't find this true at all, we laminate our UV prints with 3M 8048 with no heat and it perfectly conforms with no issues.

 

[AKwrapguy]

I have heard arguments both ways, to buy a heat assist laminator because when laminating printed material whether it's vinyl, Dibond or coroplast, heat assist produces a higher quality product. I've also been told that the benefits of heat assist are minimal and not worth it. What do you think?

So I wouldn't say that heat assist 'produces' a higher quality product. It helps you produce a product, the quality is up to you and the materials you choose. That being said it all depends on what your doing and what materials you're using and your budget. If your going to be using polycarb or other specialty lam than yes I think that a heat assisted laminator would be helpful. If your going to be using regular cast and calendared lam and you're on a budget, it probably isn't as a high priority than say more ram or even a larger laminator or better plotter.

I would say that 97% of what I have laminated over the past 10+ years has been non-heat assisted.