Almost everyone makes use of Laminators to laminate items, and this is an undisputed fact. If you visit ten offices today, you will likely find laminators in at least eight of them.
It is safe to say the numbers are this high because people now see the importance of lamination clearer than ever. One of the reasons people now laminate is to protect important documents from damage.
Paper can easily be ruined by water, heat, and human influence. When paper gets into water, it takes no time to soak and drenched. It is no news that you can not recover any detail on the paper earlier.
Another thing that can ruin paper is heat. When paper gets exposed to high temperatures, it burns, and this time, into ashes. Burned paper can also no longer be recovered. It’s gone.
Now, back to what I mean by human influence. You could easily tear the paper if you don’t handle it correctly, and in most cases, it becomes useless.
To prevent paper damage from these causes or, better still, some of these causes, lamination was introduced. With lamination, you can now protect essential documents from permanent damage.
People also laminate to improve the appearance of items like certificates, Id cards, photos, and many more. The rate at which laminating is getting popular is on the fast rise.
We can judge why the demand for laminators is also increasing. A simple law of demand in economics states that a change in demand will result in a corresponding change in the price. I will explain further in the next paragraph.
The law above implies that the price of a commodity will surely increase when the demand increases and vice versa. Applying this to laminators, with the increasing demand for it, the reason for the hike in price is not far-fetched.
Laminators are getting expensive day by day. Due to this, people are looking for alternatives to laminating without using laminators. It is possible to close up laminating sheets without a laminator.
It births the question, “How to Seal Laminating Sheets without a Laminator?” In the following subsection, I will show you other techniques for laminating without using laminators.
How Do I seal Laminating sheets without A Laminator?
Although using a laminator has proven to be easier than many other laminating techniques, it still does not compromise the speed of some different techniques.
Here, I will show you three ways to laminate paper at home, using something else aside from laminators. These techniques result in a fully laminated piece of paper, but the patience and range of effort vary.
Self-Adhesive or Self-Laminating Sheets
This method is one of the easiest and fastest ways to laminate at home without using a machine. I recommend this technique if you are the type that will frequently be laminating; you can have two to three boxes stored.
The way the Self-Laminating Sheets work is straightforward. They are a special kind of sheet, having two thin, transparent pieces of plastic. The two pieces in a pair come with adhesives on one side.
Before you begin the process, prepare a large surface to accommodate you during the binding process. The plastic pieces are designed to stick very quickly when they come in contact, so your working areas should be spacious to avoid mistakes.
Now, separate the plastic adhesive from the backing and ensure the sticky side is facing up; this means the part without adhesive should face the table or wherever you are working.
Carefully place the paper that you want to laminate on the sheet facing up. Ensure you align it smoothly while considering its angles too. Some self-adhesive sheets come with grids to help you align the paper easily.
Take the second adhesive sheet and place the sticky side into the paper below. Ensure you place it carefully to avoid wrinkles and bubbles. You can begin the attachment from one side of the sheet instead of from the middle.
If need be, you can take scissors to trim the edges of the adhesive sheets when it gets dry. You can as well leave it if there is no need for that.
Laminator Pouch
If you know the components of laminators, you should have heard about laminator pouches. They are a significant part of lamination and contribute to its working mechanism.
However, these laminator pouches can be used separately to laminate, only that they will need an iron to function effectively. Laminator pouches look like clear plastic folders but can be ironed together.
Let me walk you through how laminating with these pouches works. First of all, open the laminator pouch wide open and put in the document or paper you want to laminate.
I will advise you to cross-check that the document is aligned properly in the laminator pouch. If you face difficulties aligning the document in the laminator pouch, you should do the work on a flat surface, like a table.
When you place the document appropriately in the laminator pouch, the next step is to iron it. It would help if you did not bump into this immediately. Place a thin towel over the enclosed pouch and iron over it under medium heat.
Please ensure that you cover all areas of the laminator pouch with the hot iron. You should do this for at least thirty seconds before moving on to the following procedure. The essence of the heat is to bind the two plastic pouches by melting them together.
It is crucial that you cover all areas of the laminator pouch with your hot iron. If any part has not been ironed, you are free to repeat the process till it’s good.
Transparent Package Tape
The last technique to laminate at home without using a laminator involves a Transparent Package Tape. I see this method as the easiest when you know how to go about it.
If you have a transparent package tape at home and you need to laminate some documents, you can try it out. However, this technique works best for smaller items like letter-sized sheets. It also requires patience and may lack a professional look compared to other methods listed above.
Let’s see how this technique works in a few paragraphs
First, get your clear package tape and roll out a strip of it. It would help if you rolled out a length longer than what you need by at least 1 inch. Once you do this, move to the next step.
Get one of the laminator sheets and align the paper or document properly. Please ensure the paper sits nicely on it before introducing the tape you have prepared.
Carefully place the other sheet on the paper and use the tape to seal it on both sides. You should repeat the process until every part of the paper, and laminating sheets are covered with tape.
If you need to laminate sheets that are wider than the original width of the tape, here is something you can do. Roll out multiple pieces of the clear tape and place them on the sheet; you should allow the pieces to overlap one another.
When you are done with that, you can get scissors or a paper trimmer to cut off the excess tape on the edges of the laminated paper; this will make the edges smooth and maintain a consistent texture.
Conclusion
In the article above, I have provided you with three different ways that you can seal laminating sheets without making use of a laminator. If you are on a budget, I will advise that you go for any methods, as they will help you save a few bucks.