Choosing and Buying Laminating Supplies

Protecting documents from water damage and age is important to both the home and business. Personal photos and business documents can be preserved using lamination. Lamination utilizes plastic sheets to seal the edges of a document, thus preventing any damage from occurring to the document. Laminators can be purchased to protect small items and large items, depending on the needs of the home or business.

There are several different types of laminator. The most common are roll laminators and pouch laminators. The roll laminator is a wide format protection machine that can laminate documents up to 27 inches in width. Roll laminators can use either heat or cold to laminate documents with some machines offering both settings. Heat lamination is a quicker process than cold lamination, but tends to work only with documents that are not sensitive to heat. Certain forms of paper and inks can fade and distort when heat is applied to deal the document.

Pouch laminators tend to have smaller surface areas than roll laminators even though some roll machines use pouches instead of sheet plastic. The pouch laminator is most commonly used to protect documents that are the size of a standard sheet of paper or smaller. These machines work with both heat and cold. Laminating pictures, business cards, and menus may be more cost effective if used in conjunction with pouch laminators. Many pouch laminators are simply smaller versions of the larger roll laminators.

The laminating materials for roll and pouch lamination are different. Pouch laminators used pre-sized pouches. The documents are placed inside the pouch and then run through the laminating machine. Most pouches are created from clear plastic, but matte plastic pouches can be ordered as well. Custom pouches created to a specific size can also be ordered. Dry mounting tissue can be used when mounting posters or some photos. The dry mounting tissue can be used with porous materials to increase the adhesion to the surface.

The roll laminator uses large sheets of plastic in the lamination process. These sheets of plastic can come as both clear and matter film. Other specialty films can also be ordered including UV film, pressure sensitive film and luster finish films. In addition to the film, the roll laminator will also require regular cleaning. Roll cleaning kits should be kept on hand to keep the unit from transferring adhesive and dark marks onto laminated documents.

Clear sheets of roll laminating film are priced as low as $12 per 500 feet of clear film. As the width of the film increases, the cost of the film will also increase. Matte film, UV film and other specialty film will cost more due to the specialized nature of the material. It is also important to note that two rolls of laminating film will be required if laminating both sides of the document. Dry mounting tissue can also be used with roll laminators.

Pouches are also priced based on size and finish. Clear pouches used to laminate documents the size of a credit card can cost under $2 per 100 pouches. Dry mounting tissue for pouch laminators can cost $20 for 100 mounts fitting an 8 X 10 document. Pricing on rolls of dry mount will vary based on length and width.

Laminating supplies can be purchased on the Internet and in retail office stores. These supplies may require higher shipping and handling rates due to the weight of the material.