Caring for Your School Laminator

The only regular maintenance that is usually required for school laminators is periodic cleanings of the heat rollers. Even if you are very careful to not allow the adhesive side of the laminating film to come in contact with your laminator rollers, there will still be some adhesive deposited onto the rollers along the edge of the film. Properly aligning your film on the laminator will help to reduce these deposits but will not completely eliminate them. Cleaning these deposits off the laminator is not that difficult. However, there are a few things to keep in mind before you start cleaning.

1. You should NEVER use a sharp or pointed object to clean your laminator. In fact it is unwise to use any type of sharp objects around your laminating film rollers. These rollers cost hundreds of dollars each to replace and can be easily ruined if they are cut or gouged with a sharp object
2. Hardened adhesive deposits on the rollers can cause damage to the rollers. While cleaning it is best to slowly rotate the rollers at the slowest speed possible. It is also best not to allow adhesive build up to go too long without cleaning. Fresh layers will be much easier to remove than older ones.
3. Do NOT laminate glitter or metallic items. Glitter can get imbedded into the laminating roller making it ineffective and unable to transfer heat. Also, do not attempt to laminate items with a great deal of texture or 3d objects such as leaves, sticks, branches, plastic, mosaics, wood, or other craft projects. That is an excellent way to ruin the rollers on your laminator.

If you have some buildup on your laminator rollers, here is how to get it off…

1. Remove the film completely from the laminator like you were preparing to load new film. In fact since the film has to be off for cleaning you may want to consider cleaning the rollers when you go to change the film. Perhaps every two or three sets or rolls depending on your usage.
2. Preheat the laminator until the ready light comes on signaling that the laminator is hot. Remember that since you are cleaning the laminator while it is hot you will need to be extremely careful not to burn your hands.
3. Rub the top and bottom rollers with a 3M Scotch-Brite green scrubbing pad (Never use metal scrubbing pads to clean your rollers). Keep the rollers moving on the slowest possible speed and thoroughly scrub both rollers until all the adhesive residue is removed (this can take a little bit of patience and elbow grease). If your laminator does not allow you to move the rollers while the heat shield is up you may need to clean one area and then put the heat shield down before forwarding the rollers to another unclean portion.
4. After the rollers are completely cleaned you can install a new set of laminating rolls onto the machine, replace the feed table and you will be ready to laminate your next set of documents.

Depending on how much you use your laminator and how much adhesive is being deposited onto your rollers you should probably clean your laminator once every three to six months. If by chance you accidently wrap film around the rollers or load a set of film backwards on your laminator you will need to follow these cleaning procedures before you are able laminate any other documents

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Written by Jeff McRitchie
©2006 www.MyBinding.com