Laminators - Your guide to choosing the right laminator to suit your needs!

What are the Different Types of Laminators?

Pouch Laminators

Hot pouch laminators are the most common type of laminator. They use heated rollers to apply laminating film or a laminating pouch. Laminating also enhances the colours of inkjet or laser prints as well as photographs and other documents, yielding a professional end result. Given the thermal based technology, it’s worth highlighting that laminators can be sensitive to the quality of the laminating pouch. Some poorer quality pouches on the market cannot take the heat generated and will jam the machine. Unless you’re sure of quality, this is a technology where it’s best to use branded pouches if you can.

Roll Laminators

‘Roll’ laminators are heavy duty machines commonly used in schools and print shops. This method is really for high volume lamination and for posters, large documents etc. Most models use two separate rolls of lamination film and laminate the top and bottom of the document separately

Laminating Pouches

The laminating pouches themselves are available in a wide variety of widths and thicknesses from ID card size right up to A3 size. The thicker the laminating film, the stiffer and more durable the finished document. Some pouches are identified as ‘low melt’, these require less heat and are used for laminating materials that are sensitive to high temperatures, such as photographs.