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GBC LAMINATOR BUYING GUIDE
Find The Right Laminator For You
Which Laminator Should I Choose?
This guide provides useful information and key considerations to help you make an informed decision and find the best laminator for you.
Laminators come in a wide range of designs and sizes with various features and capabilities. Therefore, it’s important to find the right type of laminator for your needs. If looked after properly, a laminating machine is also a great investment as they can last for many years!
What Is Lamination?
Lamination is a simple process using a machine and lamination film that allows you to protect, 
preserve and enhance documents with a long lasting, durable plastic coating.
Lamination is an effective technique used to make documents look professional, and to safeguard them against creases, tears, spills, fingerprints and everyday use.
There are three key types of laminating machines; manual laminators that uses lamination pouches, a fully automatic laminator and industrial laminators.
Here we will not talk abaout industrial laminating machines as this belongs in the professional market, as thies machines are intended for high-volume laminating; often for larger items such as banners and posters.
Manual Laminators
Manual laminating machines use plastic pouches; you simply place your document inside the pouch, then heat is used to fuse the pouch together and seal the document.
Laminating pouches are available in a variety of sizes and thicknesses. Pouch laminators are most commonly available in A4 and A3 sizes which suit most users.
Key benefits:
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Ideal for light to moderate use
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Portable and easy to store
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Easy to use and operate
Automatic Laminators
An automatic laminator is a fully automated machine that significantly improves productivity compared to using a traditional laminator.
The Foton 30 delivers innovative, industry leading technology. Users can automatically laminate up to 30 A4 or A3 documents in one go, or switch to manual mode for ad hoc sized pieces. It uses a dual-sided roll film cartridge so there's no need for pouches.
Key benefits:
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Ideal for high volume day-to-day lamination
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Easy load gloss roll film cartridge
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High quality professional results, every time
Key Benefits Of Laminating
Protects:
Lamination protects documents from wear and tear and from damage caused by frequent handling, liquid spillages, finger prints, dirt and so on. It keeps documents in excellent condition by sealing them in a watertight plastic coating.
Preserves:
Laminating is a great way to preserve your documents by improving the quality and keeping them in excellent condition, for frequent handling now and in the future.
Prolongs:
Lamination is long-lasting as it prolongs the life of any document and extends its usefulness. A laminated document can be easily wiped clean, helping to maintain a pristine appearance and legibility of text.
Professional appearance:
Any printed materials that you produce and distribute reflect your business and your brand, such as brochures, presentation materials, restaurant menus or signage. Laminating these documents helps to build a respectable and professional brand image.
Perfectly enhances:
Lamination perfectly enhances any printed material, amplifying the depth and richness of the ink to improve colour contrast, which results in an all-over better quality and brightness of print.
Small & Convenient
Although used frequently for professional reasons, a laminator is handy in the home too; such as for protecting important paperwork or photos.
Pouch laminators are the perfect choice for desktops, small offices or home offices. They are portable so can be easily stored away or kept on a desk.
If you want to laminate small to medium-sized documents such as photo's, menus or ID cards, then an A4 laminating machine should meet your requirements.
Compact & Heavy Duty
For larger documents or more frequent day-to-day use, the GBC Foton 30 automatic laminator or our Fusion range of A3 laminators are ideal.
The Foton 30 can laminate up to 30 sheets in one go, and uses a unique gloss roll film cartridge. One cartridge can laminate up to 250 A4 sheets; taking the hassle out of loading and feeding pouches manually.
Also for larger documents up to A3 size, a wider pouch laminator such as the Fusion 7000L is suitable.
Questions To Consider Before Purchasing A Laminator
Where do you intend to use the laminator?
Understanding where you will be using the laminator is essentail. If it's for desktop use in a home office or small workplace, you’ll be looking for something durable, not too big and easy to store such as the Fusion 1000L A4 Laminator.
Or perhaps you need a laminator for general office use, and it will be located in a large shared workspace with multiple users for day-to-day laminating. If so, you may need to consider a heavy duty A3 pouch laminator such as the Fusion 6000L, or an automatic laminator such as the Foton 30 would best suit your requirements.
How many people will be using the laminator?
Considering the amount of users will help to determine the type of laminator that you need.
An A4 pouch laminator is ideal to keep at your desk or at reception for ad hoc use, while an A3 automatic laminator or A3 pouch laminator is best suited in a shared work space for frequent use and access for multiple users.
How much laminating will you be doing and how often?
Another key factor when choosing a laminator is to understand how frequently it will be used; to ensure that it's designed to cope with your requirements.
Moderate Use - Ad-hoc requirements a few times a month for a single user: A4 pouch laminating machines are designed primarily for infrequent or low volume laminating requirements.
Regular Use - Several times a week for 1 to 3 users: pouch laminating machines up to A3 size are perfect for most small to medium sized offices.
Heavy Use - used regularly throughout the day for 3+ users: heavy duty laminating machines, such as the GBC Foton 30 automatic laminator, cater for larger organisations that require an efficient solution for higher volumes.
What’s the largest sized documents that you are likely to be laminating?
Laminating machines vary in the different sizes and thicknesses of document that they can laminate, so it’s important to get the right one.
An A3 laminator will probably cover most people’s requirements as they can also laminate anything smaller than A3 as well. If you are only laminating smaller items such as A5 sheets, A4 office signs or ID cards, then an A4 compact pouch laminator will meet your requirements.
If you need to laminate items that are A2 size and above, then a heavy duty roll laminator would be more suitable.
What is the maximum pouch thickness that you’re likely to use?
Laminating pouch and film thickness is measured in microns (1 micron = 1000th of a millimetre). The thicker the laminating pouch or roll film, the more rigid the result. Most laminating pouches and film are available from 80 to 250 microns.
The more frequently documents are handled, the thicker the laminating sheets required to ensure adequate protection.
Before buying, make sure that your laminating machine is suitable for the desired laminating pouch thickness.
What additional features are important for your laminating tasks?
Consider what additional features are important to you and would help you to achieve the best results from your laminating projects.
Considerations for key features when purchasing a quality laminator:
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The laminating accessories required such as pouches or roll film
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The speed of a laminating machine and warm-up times
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Is an automated or manual design more suitable
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Sheet capacity required
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Energy efficiency (auto shutoff/sleep mode)
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The number of rollers; generally the higher the number of rollers that the machine has, the better the quality of lamination
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Lamination pouch compatibility checker
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