Laminating is the process of coating a flat object (paper, print, art)
with a plastic
laminate.
Laminates come in various widths, chemical compositions and thicknesses. A celloglaze for instance is a 40gsm (very thin) non hardening plastic used primarily to ‘gloss’ or ‘matt’ a surface like business cards, greeting cards and to make paper ‘tear proof’ or ‘water proof’.
Cold laminates are applied at about 40C. The glue is on the laminate so a protective paper is removed prior to laminating. Cold laminates come in various thicknesses and surfaces and are the most versatile and archival of laminates. Unfortunately, they have no hardening capability so remain soft are require a more rigid base to apply to.
Hot laminates are heated to roughly 110C which activates a dry glue on the laminate surface and ‘melts’ the glue. When the laminate cools, the glues cures into the finished product - a clear, durable, stiff product. Hot laminates come in various thicknesses and surfaces as well, and are the most common laminate used.
Celloglaze is a thin hot laminate with no stiffener. It is available in gloss or matt.
Liquid laminates come in many forms, from art lacquers, aerosol sprays and bulk liquids which are applied with a spray gun.
OzPrintShop carries most of these laminate, each described below in more detail.
Hot Laminates are applied using a large laminating machine.
The roll of laminate is 1000mm wide and the length can vary up the the roll length.
All laminating is batch processed to absorb the start up costs. Hot laminates usually require that an edge around the whole poster be left untrimmed (called encapsulation) to prevent lifting at the edges. This depends on the use of the laminated product, and it’s life expectancy. Please call if you need advise on bordered and borderless edges.
Our primary product is a crystal satin laminate (125gsm) which has been very successful for many years now. Samples are available if required.
Laminating can be charged on a unit basis which includes trimming, or by the metre which does not include trimming in the price.
* Not suitable for thin papers
* Not suitable for thick papers
Celloglaze is a hot laminate, and is applied using a roll laminator. The Laminator machine is much smaller and the roll width is 300mm. We laminate with gloss on 1 side, and matt on the other - there is no single sided hot laminating.
Laminated pieces are charged as below but do not include trimming, which is charged on a time basis.
The celloglaze machine is also used for narrow width hot laminating at 320mm width. We stock 75gsm and 100gsm gloss rolls.
These are used for document laminating like A5, A4 and A3 sheets. A double laminate can be used to make ‘stiffer’ products like menus.
High quality liquid laminates are available for fine art and photo papers from Hahnemuhle™ and Print Shield™ in an aerosol pak.
They are used to apply several coats of very fine mist to the surface. The coating provides protection against airborne contaminants, finger prints and scratching.
A must for competition entries and museum quality finish.
Works on any photo paper.
