GBC Laminator Buying Guide

Pouch laminators

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These laminating machines are the most popular and easy-to-use models found in homes and offices. Simply place your document in a laminating pouch, and the machine will use heat to melt adhesive inside the lamination pouch and seal the document for you.

Pouch laminators are designed to be compact, user friendly and flexible for most standard laminating jobs, making them ideal for both home laminating or office laminating. GBC offers a wide range of lamination machines from home office and small office laminators which will be used occasionally to large office laminators designed to withstand frequent to heavy use. Unless you want to laminate in high volumes or have special laminating requirements, a pouch laminator will likely suit your needs.

Roll laminators

Roll laminators tend to be found in commercial premises like photography studios or print shops. They are better suited to high volume laminating than pouch laminators and make it easier to laminate products of lots of different sizes and shapes.

With a roll laminator, you place the document you are laminating into the machine where it will be fed between two adjacent rolls of film. Rollers then apply heat and pressure to seal the two layers together with the document inside. Once laminated the document is then trimmed either manually or automatically to release it from the device.

GBC offers a wide range of roll laminator machines catering for a variety of different sized media.  The latest innovation being the fully automatic Foton 30, which allows users to load up to 30 sheets, which are automatically fed into the machine using a document feeder.  These are then laminated and automatically trimmed before coming to rest on the desktop.  Designed with heavy usage in mind, this product can save users up to 98% of their time as you simply load, press play and you’re done.

Cold Laminators

These use pressure instead of heat to laminate, making them suitable for heat-sensitive materials like receipts or inkjet prints.  A small number of our machines feature a cold setting for this type of laminating.

Pouch laminators and the pouches themselves come in different sizes. The standard pouch laminator is designed to take documents from ID card up to A3 in size. More compact versions are built for just ID Card to A4 documents. GBC lamination pouches are available in sizes A2 to A7 as well as bespoke sizes suitable for business or membership cards, luggage tags and more. A4 and A3 laminating pouches are the most common.

Choosing the right size laminator isn't just about matching the size of your documents. Most pouch laminators can accommodate various sizes, provided the pouch fits through the feed slot. While A4 laminators may seem sufficient for standard documents, A3 laminators offer significant advantages even if you never plan to laminate A3 sheets. For instance, an A3 laminator allows you to laminate two A4 documents simultaneously using an A3 pouch, or up to four A5 sheets at once- significantly improving efficiency. Additionally, A3 laminators support the use of A4 high-speed pouches. These are A4-sized pouches where the sealed long edge is fed into the laminator first (landscape orientation). This reduces the feed time, making the process up to 30% faster compared to laminating with the shorter edge first (portrait orientation). This is especially beneficial when laminating in bulk, as it enhances throughput and productivity. On the other hand, A4 laminators are more compact and better suited for environments with lighter workloads, such as home use or small offices.

One of the big attractions of pouch laminators is how easy they are to use. Here is a guide on how to laminate documents:

1. Prepare Your Document: Place the document you want to laminate inside a laminating pouch. Ensure its centred and free of wrinkles.
2. Select the pouch setting. Some smaller and more basic laminators only have one setting, but if the laminator is more advanced you will find different micron settings which you should match with your chosen pouches. Some advanced laminators feature sensors to automatically adjust to the appropriate temperature as the pouch passes through the laminator to help minimise the risk of mistakes.
3. Preheat the Laminator: Wait for the laminator to heat up – this is usually indicated by a red indicator light. You can’t use a laminator the moment you switch it on. You must wait until it reaches the correct temperature, otherwise the laminating pouch will not seal properly, and you will get poor results. Most laminators will typically take between 1-3 minutes to reach their operational temperature. Typically, a green or blue indicator light tells you when it is ready. Generally speaking, more advanced laminators offer the fastest warm up times.
4. Insert the Pouch: Feed the pouch into the laminator, sealed edge first. Make sure it's aligned properly to avoid misfeeds or jams. Some of our laminating machines feature smart LED guides to help users feed laminating pouches straight through the laminator.  This lessens the risk of jamming or a poor-quality finish.
5. Wait for Lamination: Once inserted, the laminator rollers will pull the pouch through, applying heat and pressure to seal it. This usually takes between 15 to 45 seconds depending on the machine being used.
6. Cool Down: Once the pouch exits the laminator, lay it flat for a few seconds while it cools. This helps the lamination set properly and avoids curling.
7. Trim Excess: If needed, trim any excess laminate from the edges using scissors or a paper cutter but leave a bit of a plastic edge so the seal doesn’t break

Tip: Use the Right Pouch: Ensure you're using the correct size and thickness of pouch for your document and use good-quality pouches for the best results. If you are not sure, you can use our handy lamination pouch finder below to help you find the right laminating pouch for your project.

For the best results and long-lasting protection of your documents, we recommend using our high-quality, GBC laminating pouches.  They are specifically designed to work seamlessly with your GBC machine, ensuring a flawless finish and superior durability compared to lower value generic pouches.  They are also the best way to protect and enhance the performance of your GBC machine over the longer term as both are designed to work together as a laminating system.

If you're shopping for or comparing laminators, here are the most important features to look for when searching for the best type of laminator to buy -whether you're using it at home, in a classroom, or for business:

Micron settings: This dictates the maximum thickness of the lamination pouches that you can safely use with the laminating machine.  250-micron (for 2 x 250 pouches) is typically the highest setting for most high-end pouch laminating machines.  80-micron (2 x 80 pouches) is suitable for most everyday lamination needs and is found on all machines.

Warm up time: The faster the warm up time the less waiting you need to do.  Although slower warm up times provide time to prepare and load your lamination pouches. One minute warm-up times are typically reserved for machines in higher usage environments to reduce wait times.

Throughput speed: This is the speed at which the laminator laminates.  This is normally specified in millimetres per minute (mm/min).  Be sure to compare like for like.  At GBC we also share the time it takes to laminate a single A4 document using a standard 80-micron pouch as this is often more meaningful.  Remember, the thicker the pouch the longer the lamination process often takes.  First reason is typically a longer warm-up time to get to a higher temperature and secondly, some higher-end machines that laminate 175 or 250 micron pouches will slow down the laminating speed for these thicker pouches to maintain a high-quality finish.

Other Features: Consider features such as automatic shut-off, which powers down the machine after a period of inactivity to save energy. Many newer GBC laminators feature an active standby feature which can sense if laminating is taking place and will switch off after 15 minutes. Additionally, jam release / reverse functions are important to prevent misfeeds and protect your documents from damage. Some higher-end GBC models also have an auto reverse feature which is designed to protect the laminator from any potential damage from misfed pouches.

What can I laminate?

There is a long list of possible uses for a laminating machine.

Aside from paper documents and cards, other materials you might want to laminate include:

• Photographs
• Carbon copies
• Vinyl prints
• Screen prints

Laminators provide a simple yet effective means of protecting, preserving and enhancing documents.

Lamination adds a tough, long lasting plastic coating that prevents the everyday wear and tear that soon makes paper documents unusable. It stops them getting torn or crumpled, it protects them from spills and stains. That’s an absolute must if you want to keep reusing printed paper products in busy environments like offices, schools, hospitals, shops, restaurants and more.

At the same time, laminating gives documents a professional-looking finish. It’s generally considered to be more professional to display a glossy laminated sign in their office, classroom or waiting room than pin a plain piece of paper to the wall that soon look tired and tatty.

One final handy benefit is that you can write on a laminated document and then easily wipe it clean again. This proves useful in lots of different environments, from annotating plans and proposals in meetings to reusing teaching materials in classrooms.

Here’s a summary of the main advantages of a laminating machine:

Strength and durability

Paper is a weak material, and yet we rely on it for so many things. Laminating adds strength and durability, keeping documents safe from wear and tear.

Water protection

One sure fire way to ruin paper documents is getting them wet. The sealed plastic layer laminating adds keeps paper safe from spilled drinks, rain, being dropped into sinks, etc.

Contact us to discuss your requirements of roll laminating machine. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.

Long lasting protection

Lamination doesn’t just protect documents for a few days or weeks. The tough plastic casing it adds will last for years, preserving the printed material for as long as you need.

Extended use

Long lasting protection means you can keep using laminated materials over and over, safe in the knowledge that they won’t tear, crumple or smudge.

Professional appearance

Carefully preserved documents reflect well on your business. But aside from that, lamination also gives paper products a unique gloss that looks attractive and professional.

There are two basic types of lamination machine:

Pouch laminators

This is the standard type of laminating machine you will find in most homes and offices. Pouch laminators are designed to be compact, easy to use and flexible for most standard laminating jobs. Unless you want to laminate in high volumes or have special laminating requirements, a pouch laminator will likely suit your needs.

Roll or Film laminators

These types of laminating machine tend to be found in commercial premises like photography studios or small printing shops. They are better suited to high volume laminating than pouch laminators and also make it easier to laminate products of lots of different sizes and shapes.

With a roll laminator, you place the products you are laminating onto a bottom layer of film and feed both into the machine. Rollers apply another layer of laminate film along with heat and pressure to seal the two layers together.

Pouch laminators and the pouches themselves come in different sizes. The standard pouch laminator is designed to take documents up to A3 in size. More compact versions are built for A4 documents.

Leitz pouches are available in A3 to A7 as well as bespoke sizes suitable for business or membership cards, luggage tags and more. A4 and A3 laminating pouches are the most common.

Choosing the right size laminator is not purely a case of thinking about the size of the documents you want to laminate. A3 laminators are very useful even if you have no intention of ever laminating A3 size sheets.

Because you can fit two A4 sheets at a time in an A3 pouch (or four A5 sheets), A3 laminators speed things up when you have several items at a time to laminate.

On the flipside, A4 laminators are smaller and more compact. If you don’t have large amounts to laminate, they might suit a home or small office better.

Warm up time

The faster the warm up time the less waiting you need to do.  Although slower warm up times provide time to prepare and load your lamination pouches. One minute warm-up times are typically reserved for machines in higher usage environments to reduce wait times.

Throughput speed

This is the speed at which the laminator laminates.  This is normally specified in milimetres per minute (mm/min).  Be sure to compare like for like.  At Leitz we also share the time it takes to laminate a single A4 sheet using a standard 80micron pouch as this is often more meaningful.  Remember, the thicker the pouch the longer the lamination process takes.

The number of rollers

Laminating pouch machines deploy rollers, heat and add pressure to the pouch as it passes between the rollers.  The more rollers the machine has the better and more even the lamination finish.  Not all rollers are heated so if we need a professional finish be sure to check how many rollers are actually heated.  For context, some of Leitz’s best specified laminators feature 6 rollers, the pouch is fed between 3 rollers above the pouch and three rollers below, 4 of which are heated.

Micron settings

This dictates the maximum thickness of the lamination pouches that you can safely use with the laminating machine.  250microns is typically the highest setting for high end machines.  80microns is suitable for most everyday lamination needs.

Guarantee

2-year warranties are commonplace. Leitz Touch range laminators offer 3-year extended warranty for additional peace of mind.

A crucial part of using a pouch laminator is choosing the pouch. Lamination pouches come in different thicknesses. The thicker the pouch, the more rigid and durable the finished product will be.

You will see laminate pouches labelled with a number followed by ‘mic’, which is short for microns. 1 micron = th of a millimetre. You will typically see pouch thicknesses between 80 to 250 mic. The micron measurement communicated refers to the thickness of one side of the pouch.  You will often will see labels like 2 x 80 mic, 2 x 150 mic etc; this is simply refering to the front and back lamination thickness.

Choosing a thicker pouch makes sense when you have items that you know are going to be handled and used frequently as thicker pouches offer increased durability.

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