Laminators are electrical machines or devices you can use whenever you want to laminate your object or document. They are the best method of laminating your documents as their name implies. Laminators were made specifically for one job which is to laminate. However, people have started to explore new ways by which laminators can be useful such as beautifying documents or objects using foil paper.
You can stick different symbols, drawings, shapes, numbers or even letters on your object or document when you use the foil sheet and run it through your laminator. This is one new way people adapt to beautify documents as laminators now do more than just sealing pouches to provide protective covers for your documents.
There are a lot of laminators in the market today and each of them come in different shapes, sizes, capabilities, cost and operating system. There’s the Amazon basic thermal laminator, the scotch laminator, the Swingline laminator and lots more from other brands. You’ll meet different brands of laminators online whenever you opt to go to the internet to shop for a laminator.
The same way you can find different brands of laminators in the market is the exact same way you’ll find that each brand has different features which distinguish one from the other. It could be that a brand’s laminator has a heat up or warm-up time of 2 minutes while another brand has a warm-up time of 4 minutes. There are also some brands which laminate your documents at a much faster speed than the others.
There are two major ways you can do a laminate when it comes to using a laminator, they are the hot lamination and the cold lamination.
Hot lamination is the lamination method or process almost everyone uses when they want to do a laminate. If you go to public places, a home or an office and you see someone using a laminator, there’s a pretty high chance such an individual Is using the hot lamination process. Hot lamination is the method almost all laminators use. Here, the laminator uses heat and pressure to seal the pouch or the object as it runs through its rollers.
Cold lamination on the other hand is also another method of laminating your documents. Here, you can laminate your documents without the use of heat.
As stated earlier, most laminators use heat when they want to do a laminate. If you are buying a laminator today, there’s a high chance you’ll buy the one that uses heat. However, like most new model laminators from different brands, you might notice that your heat laminator has a cold setting on it.
” What is a cold setting on my thermal laminator? Why is it there ? Why does my thermal laminator have a cold setting?” You might ask upon seeing the cold setting feature.
The answers to these questions are relatively easy. Follow me as I explain why there’s a cold setting on your thermal laminator
Why does a laminator have a cold setting
The thermal laminator uses heat when you want to laminate your documents. However, features such as the cold setting have been added to most new laminators. Brand manufacturers recognize the fact that it isn’t all documents you plan laminating that will be non-reactive to heat. In order to cut the need for you to own two laminators at once which is the hot and the cold laminators ( imagine the amount of space it would consume), they decided to look for ways by which a laminator would be able to use any of the methods when doing a laminate depending on the documents. That’s why there’s a close setting on your laminator
We all know that laminators distribute pressure more evenly. This is where the cold setting in your laminator becomes very useful. Some documents are very heat sensitive and can be ruined or risk being damaged if they pass through a thermal machine. These include documents such as ageing photos, ultrasound images etc.
Your hot setting might be good for laminating your everyday documents but when it comes to special documents which are sensitive to heat, keeping it cold with your cold setting feature on your laminator is the best way to go when doing a laminate.
The cold setting on your laminator is the best option when laminating heat-sensitive objects. The cold laminating pouches usually use an adhesive that is activated with pressure.
The cold setting switches your laminator from using heat and pressure to seal its pouch to using pressure and adhesive when you want to do a laminate.
You might even say that using the cold lamination setting is much safer than the thermal laminator. This is because they do not generate any heat and use less power most times. The risk of an accident occurring while using the cold setting on your laminator is quite low.
” How does the cold setting work on my laminator” you might ask.
Follow me as I explain how it works
How the cold setting works on my laminator
First and foremost, the document you want to laminate decides what should be your preference between the cold setting and the heat lamination.
You’ll have to put the sensitive documents inside a pouch. This pouch differs from the ones you use when you want to do a heat laminate.
Once the object is inside the pouch, you can then switch the cold setting on your laminator on and put the sealed part of the pouch inside the laminator. The laminate then uses adhesive and pressure to bind and seal the pouch before it comes out of the opposite end. When the pouch is out, you’ll notice that all parts of the pouch are sealed and you got yourself a good laminate.
There are a lot of questions you might have when it comes to cold lamination and laminators in general.
Below are frequently asked questions you might have about laminators
Frequently asked questions
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Is cold lamination better than hot?
This is one major question people tend to have in mind when it comes to comparing cold lamination and hot lamination. The answer depends on the type of documents you plan to laminate. If you want to laminate documents that are sensitive to heat, cold lamination is best as it will help preserve the color and looks. However, if you want to laminate objects that are not sensitive to heat, it’s best you use hot lamination.
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Are hot laminating fumes toxic?
This is another question most people ask relating to laminating and laminators generally. The smell that comes from your laminator when you heat it up is not toxic. They are normal and cannot have any adverse effect on your body.
Laminating your documents without flaws or mistakes in the process of lamination can give you a very pleasing or beautiful feeling. This is why there’s a cold setting feature on your laminator. Brand manufacturers recognize the fact that using heat to laminate sensitive documents might ruin your documents which is why the cold setting feature was made. The cold setting isn’t made to give you a good laminate for your sensitive documents alone but to also give you a good feeling when you see a good or perfect laminate.