We recommend leaving at least a 1/8" border around laminated documents. This will allow the plastic to properly adhere both to itself and to your document; if you trim your project flush to the edge of the document, moisture and dirt can get between the lamination and damage your document, and the film can eventually start peeling away.

We recommend a rotary trimmer, a zippy cutter, a craft knife (like X-acto), or of course, a regular pair of scissors.

Heat wrinkles form when the film hasn't cooled properly before coming off the back of the machine. You want your laminated document to cool below the melt temperature of the film while it's still being pulled tight between the rollers—this is the main reason that laminators have fans on them—to cool the item, not to cool the machine down.The fix for heat wrinkles is to slow the machine speed down slightly so that the item has a chance to cool before exiting the back of the machine.

If your laminated item is curling up or down after it's gone through the machine, check your user manual for instructions for “film tension.” You'll need to adjust either the top or bottom tension to correct this problem (typically, if the film curls upward, you'd adjust the bottom tension; if the film curls downward, you'd adjust the top tension). If your tension is correct but you're getting waves toward the center of the web film as it comes out the back, you've probably got “heat waves,” and you'll need to turn the temp down or slow your speed down a little bit.

UV film is used specifically for outdoor use such as billboard or the sides of buses. UV film protects your document against the weather and the sun for 3–5 years longer than standard laminating film without the protective UV coating.

If you see severe wrinkles on both sides of your laminated items, you probably have neglected to close and lock your laminating rollers. Check your roller opening/closing controls.

You may also get wrinkles if your rolls aren't tensioned properly. All laminators need a certain amount of resistance as the supply roll unwinds—this keep the film lying flat as it feeds through the rollers.

If the top of your document is unwrinkled but the bottom has a lot of bubbles and wrinkles, then check that your bottom idler is threaded per your user manual's directions. If you've checked your rollers and your idler but you're still having difficulties, here are three more suggestions:

1. 1. 1. Make sure the film path is correct for both the top and bottom webs

      2. Make sure the film is threaded around both the top and bottom idlers

      3. Make sure the machine is up to temperature before running items through

Heat shoes are cylinder-shaped “shoes” with an electric heating element inside them; the film is pulled across the heated shoes and the rollers then apply pressure, activating the adhesive on the film and causing it to adhere to the document. Heated rollers, on the other hand, contain an embedded heating element; as the film moves across the rollers, the heat activates the adhesive on the film and causes it to adhere to the document. Although rollers apply both heat and pressure, thus offering a slightly better bond than heat shoes, heat shoes have fewer moving parts, so higher volume commercial operations typically use heat shoes since they offer the benefit of being able to laminate more items faster.

For cleaning, we always recommend that you refer to your user manual for information specific to your machine. In general, you can use a little denatured alcohol and a mildly abrasive scrubber to clean your rollers. If you'd prefer an all-in-one set, we offer a roll cleaning kit which includes denatured alcohol, a soft cloth, and a scrubbing pad. Additionally, you can purchase our cleaning erasers which you can use to “erase” adhesive from your machine's rollers. For additional information, you can also check out our blog post “Get on a Roll with Your Heated Roll Laminator” which has information on cleaning your pouch laminator.

*Note: Never use a straight edge, razor blade, or X-acto knife to clean your rollers.

“Poly-in” means that the heat activated adhesive is rolled toward the inside of the film rolls—this is the most common arrangement.

Coverlam is a premium grade, low-temp melt, aggressive adhesive film used for specialty items. The adhesive on Coverlam melts at a lower temperature.

Thicker laminating film has a thicker layer of glue which requires a lower temperature.

Always refer to your roll laminator's user manual for information on temperature settings.

In general, however, these are the temperature settings you would use:

For general purpose film: 1.5 mil runs at 290º–315º; 3 mil runs at 275º–300º.

For premium films: 1.7 mil runs at 220º–270º; 3 mil runs at 220º–270º; 5 mil runs at 240º–275º; 10 mil runs at 220º–260º.

The maximum film gauge you can use is 10 mil; the maximum laminating thickness is 1/8".

You can run 1000'of 1.5 mil film and 500' of 3 mil film.