Hey there! Don’t get confused; Laminator paper is sometimes used interchangeably with laminator film. So in this context, we are looking at how to change laminator film. Before I go into that, let’s find out what a laminator film is and what it does in a laminator.
A laminator film or a laminating film is the plastic sheet used as protection for the documents you place in a laminator. Usually, A laminating film is made of a base film, which can be PVC or polyester, with an adhesive coating.
The adhesive is necessary to bind the film to the items you are laminating. These adhesives, however, need to be activated before they can be used. They can either be triggered by thermal heat or by high pressure.
Laminating films are not installed in laminators by manufacturers; they are wounded around a cardboard core, which you have to load into your roll laminator by yourself. Also, when you exhaust the film in the laminator, you have to reload it to continue laminating.
The process of loading and reloading laminating films are the same. However, it takes a little bit of know-how to do well at it. If you jump into it without having enough knowledge, you might make lots of mistakes, which could put your laminator or documents at risk.
In this article, I will teach you how to change or reload your laminating film whenever it gets exhausted. When you know about this, you don’t need the help of any professional for it. It could be effortless if you carefully follow the procedure.
How To Reload Laminating Film
Before I go into how this process works, you must know this. Reloading of Laminating film is usually done when a laminator is hot, so I will advise you to proceed with extreme caution. Any little mistake could result in an injury.
Film loading can be a little complex, especially when you do it at random periods. However, if you want to load your laminating film seamlessly, you should do it when the machine is in Ready Mode or while it is still warming up.
The procedure below will help you achieve a seamless experience while reloading a laminating film.
- Lift the Safety shield of the laminator and lower the feed table. To lower the feed table, simply push down on the table latches.
- If you are reloading film, i.e., if this is not the first you are doing so, cut the remaining top and bottom film webs between the supply rolls and the idler bars.
- The next step is with the film levers of the laminator. Raise the levers on the Film Saddles and carefully remove the old film rolls. Remember that this applies to those who are not loading for the first time. If you are loading film for the first time, you have no business with old film rolls.
- After that, you are to install the new film rolls. This can be done in two different ways, depending on the type of film you want to load. For some, you have to insert the film directly into the saddles, ensuring the film end plugs correspond with the saddles in color and size. For others, like standard films, you have to load the film on the film shaft first, then load the shaft on the film saddles. I will discuss how to load standard film to film shafts in the following subheading.
- After loading, close up the film holder levers on the film saddles.
- The next step is to thread the film. I will describe film threading later in this article.
- Close up the feed table and Heat shield of the laminator. After that, turn the top roller in a way that creates slack in the film off it.
- Push the film into the nip of the Heat Rollers. You can do this by using the threading card that comes with the film. Continue pushing while you have hit the Forward button.
- Push and hold the Slow Forward button while watching the film thread through the Heat and Pull Rollers. It would help if you kept your eye on the film exiting the back of your laminator.
How Do You Load Standard Films on Film Shafts?
If you are using standard films, you should not make the mistake of Loading it directly on the film saddles. Instead, you have to load on the film shafts, then load the shafts on the film saddles. This is very common with most laminators.
If you will also be using standard films, I will show you how you can load the films on the film shafts before loading them on the saddles.
- The first thing is to keep the feed table in the open position. When that is done, rest the film roll on the idler bar and the edge of the feed table.
- The next step is to remove the dark blue end cap that comes with the film shaft. You can do this by simply pulling it off.
- Make sure the O-ring is set to proper film with the position.
- Once sure of that, carefully insert the film shaft through the cardboard core in the film rolls and replace the dark blue end cap that you have previously removed.
After doing that, you can proceed with the next step in film loading. However, you should ensure that the film is flush against the O-ring and that the top and bottom rollers are aligned during the installation.
Also, make it a priority to load the film in the proper direction for top and bottom rolls when inserting the shaft.
How To Thread Laminating Film
You are to thread the film after loading it and closing the film holder levers on the film saddles. The threading part can, however, be a little tricky if you don’t know how to go about it. So I will show you how to do that here.
- The first thing to do is to unwind the top and bottom film rolls. It is vital before you start threading so you can have enough slack for the procedure.
- The next step is to drape the lower supply roll over the top idler bar. This will also create enough slack needed to close the feed table after threading.
- Then drape the film from the Upper Roll over the film from the lower roll.
- After all of that, you are done with threading. However, you should ensure that the top and bottom film edges are aligned, so you don’t get bad laminates.
Conclusion
Changing and reloading laminating film is not as complicated as most people think. I can assure you that you will have the most accessible experience doing it when you follow the procedure I have described above.