How to choose a laminator

How to choose a good laminator.
We can help, its what we do :-)

We provide a free consultation service to help you make sure you’re getting
the best laminator possible. Even if its not one of ours.

Below are the traditional lamination processes for large format print finishing.
Customers will receive free access to our extensive educational library.

1. Single sided laminating - The most basic process performed in print finishing. Commonly used for over laminating images printed directly to adhesive backed vinyl’s. Examples would include vehicle wraps, Out-door 4 x 8 commercial site signs and kiss cut adhesive backed custom decals.

2. Decaling - The process of applying an over laminate and mounting adhesive to a paper based print in a single pass through the laminator. This process is used to prepare a print for mounting to a variety of substrates. Examples would include indoor displays, presentation boards, courtroom litigation graphics and fine art photography.

3. Mounting - A process used for adhering a printed image or photograph to substrate / board. Commonly used for mounting pressure sensitive decals, created by printing direct to pressure sensitive vinyl. Including images that have been converted using the decaling process (see definition decaling) Examples would include flexible and or rigid display panels.

4. Pre-Coating Boards with adhesive – The process of applying a pressure sensitive adhesive to a variety of substrates. Referred to as “pre-coated boards”, they are prepared for mounting a photograph or printed image to. This process is commonly used in situations in which the mounted photo or image will not be over-laminated. Examples would include short term signage - e.g., presentation boards, litigation graphics and meeting room signage for tradeshows.

Encapsulating a digital print with Mefu-America

5. Encapsulating –Should not be confused with laminating both sides of a printed image. True encapsulated prints have a sealed edge. This process requires the laminations films to be slightly larger than the printed image to form the sealed edge. e.g., restaurant menus, posters and geographical maps.

Note: Laminators for this process require full heated main rollers and a set of pull rollers increasing the basic machine cost.

Process capability table

One of the key factors in selecting the correct laminating machine is
about the processes you need to do.

Model	MF1700-A1+	MF1700-C3	MF1700-F2	Flat Bed
Single sided laminating	X	X	X	X
Decaling			X
Mounting	X	X	X	X
Precoating Boards with Adhesive	X	X	X	X
In-Line Trimming	X	X	X

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How to choose a good laminator.We can help, its what we do :-)

We provide a free consultation service to help you make sure you’re gettingthe best laminator possible. Even if its not one of ours. Below are the traditional lamination processes for large format print finishing.Customers will receive free access to our extensive educational library.