There are several issues you might face while using a laminator, including wrinkling of the paper, bubbles, overheating, and inadequate heat, to mention a few. Things could go wrong if you don’t know how to fix them before or when they occur.
Wrinkles and Bubbles are prevailing situations that people face when they laminate. This could result from low roll tension and sometimes too little or too much heat.
When your laminator heats up too much, it becomes overheated and might end up burning whatever you want to laminate. Also, if it does not heat up well, your documents will not be appropriately laminated.
I received several reports that some laminators were not heating up, and I have compiled possible causes for that and the solutions. In the next paragraph, I will walk you through the various reasons why your laminator might not be heating up.
What is stopping My Laminator from Heating up?
There are several reasons your laminator might not be heating up or why you think it is not heating up. I will start from scratch before I move to advanced grounds.
First, the power might be turned off. You could think the power is on, but it might still be off. This is not very common, but I have observed it in many cases.
The power might even be turned on, but there could be a minor disconnection in the inner wiring. When there is any internal cut in the wires, your laminator will not turn on. Most times, the cases are usually from the wiring.
Also, your laminator will not heat up if it has not reached the required time. Averagely, laminators require ten minutes to heat up, and you might wait for less than this period and think the laminator is faulty.
You have to wait a minimum of ten minutes (some laminators take more than that) for your laminator to heat up before you start putting in the items you want to laminate.
So, if at any time you turn on your laminator and you notice it does not heat up, you should wait a little bit. It could be that the laminator has not reached the required temperature. You can hold on after you have confirmed that the plug and other connections are in place.
Sometimes, the instructions on the machine might indicate ten to fifteen minutes; you can wait for longer until you run out of patience. If you can not hold on anymore, you should check out the next tip.
Check the heat settings on the laminator and try out a different one. Many laminators come with different heat settings, and this affects how fast they heat up. If you are sure the problem is not from the power and is also not from lamination time, you can try this out.
The heat settings of these laminators are always highlighted in their respective positions. You can adjust the settings on your own to whatever you like. If you want the laminator to heat up faster to avoid delays, you can increase the heat settings.
However, some laminators do not come with heat settings. In such cases, you should use the speed setting to adjust the heat setting. You might wonder how this is possible.
Speed and Heat work hand in hand when laminating. If the speed is too high and the heat is relatively lower, then you might end up with silvering documents after laminating.
On the other hand, if the speed is low and the heat is relatively high, you might end up with wavy documents after laminating. For this reason, you have to balance the speed and heat that gets into the laminator. It is also a factor that determines if the laminator will heat up or not.
So for laminators that do not come with heat settings but have speed settings, when the laminator does not heat up, it could be that the speed is higher than the amount of heat that is entering the laminator. In such cases, you have to lower the speed setting till the laminator begins to heat up.
Since the machine will not tell you when the speed is now balanced with the heat coming in, you have to be very observant. As you reduce the pace with the control, it begins to come in level with the heat. You might start to notice that the laminator is slowly heating up.
When the laminator heats up to your desired temperature, you can leave the speed setting. You should tell that the speed is now leveled with the heat entering the laminator.
Another reason your laminator might not be heating up might be because the material is jammed in the machine. As you laminate, especially when you do it with too much speed, some materials you want to laminate might get stopped in the laminator.
If you do not get the jammed material or paper out of where it is stuck, the laminator will not heat up. In such cases, you do not have to open the laminator from top to bottom to get the stuck paper out.
Instead, press and hold the reverse button for a while; This will bring the paper or the material you are laminating backward to where you have put it in.
Sometimes, your laminator will not heat up if the “set” button is not working correctly. If you have checked the tips I mentioned earlier, and nothing works, you can check the “set” button if it is working fine.
The set button is usually integrated with the heat setting and is used to confirm whatever setting you have inputted. If you adjust your heat settings and you keep pressing a faulty “set” button, your laminator will not heat up.
The above scenario is the only one that might need the help of a professional. They will replace the faulty button with a new functioning one. If you don’t know how to go about this, please call on a professional.
Conclusion
I might have skipped something else. The tips above remain the most common reason laminators do not heat up. However, there is one other reason which is least expected, but I should talk about it too.
This cause is known as Adhesive buildup. When adhesive builds up in rollers due to extended usage, the heating begins to slow down and sometimes stops working. Sometimes, the age of rollers could also get them cracked and damaged, and this will also affect how the laminator heats up.
This is why I said it is the least common because it only happens when your laminator rollers begin to age, which is not a frequent issue. You will know this when you start seeing small dots in areas where the lamination hasn’t manifested fully due to lack of heat.
The reason for this is that anytime some areas of the laminate come in contact with the roller and have adhesive buildup or gouge will result in an unlaminated spot or region.
So how do you solve this? It is straightforward. You do not have to replace your laminators. All you have to do is replace the rollers with new ones or clean them up if they are not cracked or broken yet.