Lamination equipment for wide format inkjet printers.

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Links, info on all major wide format laminating machine manufacturers for wideformat inkjet printers, Seal, CODA, GBC, LEDCO, USI, Accutech, AGL Advanced Greig Laminators and other laminating equipment for large format.

I tend to inspect the equipment at trade shows, such as the Seybold, Comdex, DRUPA, SGIA, ISA, etc. In past years the nice people at LEDCO provided helpful information (as well as laminated all my Encad wide format print samples that I was carrying around). LEDCO seems to make good equipment. Another good manufacturer of laminators is USI.

Laminating does more than protect your prints from coffee spills inside and rain outside. Laminating actually increases the dramatic contrast of the colors of your ink jet print. Take a sample print and laminate it; a laminated print attracts more attention as a point of sale sign, or displays for a trade show. Once you acquire your wide format printer it is only a matter of time before you want a roll laminator as well.

"High-end" lamination equipment is a polite way for saying that these laminators are industrial strength, large, complex and correspondingly expensive. These are for large shops with lots of equipment and trained operators. AGL and Seal make the best known high-end laminators.

If you are just starting in wide format, or are a small company with limited budget, it makes more sense to find a practical laminator that is easy for you and your staff to use. We recommend laminators from USI for several reasons, including that USI offers the widest range of products that will help yourself and your company enter the world of large format digital color printing.

We checked with several companies that had laminators. They had LEDCO brand, so this is the first laminator we have installed in the new FLAAR facility at Bowling Green State University.

Seal is clearly the #1 name in commercial laminating equipment. GBC is another large company, though a GBC machine at Kinko's ruined all my wide format panoramas (it was probably the careless operator; I would like to try another GBC machine to give the company the benefit of the doubt). USI has the most useful catalog, covering the widest range of accessories. LEDCO, already mentioned above, seems to make good basic equipment. Just as soon as we have time to wrangle a demo unit we will report on which company we recommend. For entry level laminator, contact the helpful people at USI, email market@USI-corp.com

Check out whether the ink and media can take the heat of heat lamination. Otherwise you need a cold lamination system or a liquid lamination system. Liquid laminate is available from Valspar Corp. and other companies.

Most recently updated August 2, 2001.