Choosing the Thickness of Laminating Pouches for Your Documents

Using a pouch laminator and some laminating pouches it is incredibly simple to create high quality laminated signs, luggage tags, name tags, visual aids and identification pieces. All you need to do is insert the material that you want to laminate into the laminating pouch, insert the pouch into the carrier and then run the carrier and pouch through your laminator. All this is very simple if you have the right laminating pouches for your job. This article is designed to provide information that will help you choose the right thickness of laminating pouch for your documents.

There are five primary thicknesses of laminating pouches available on the market. However, before we discuss these different thicknesses it is important to note a few things. First, the thickness of the laminating pouch is per side. This means that a 10mil laminating pouch is actually 20mil thick (10mil on the front and 10mil on the back). It is also important to note that not all laminating pouches will accept all the different thicknesses of laminating pouches. Before you select the thickness of pouch that you want to use you will need to reference your laminator’s user’s manual to determine the maximum pouch thickness that it can accept.
There are five different thicknesses of pouches. Here they are…

1. 1.5mil Pouches are the thinnest laminating pouches available on the market. In fact, they are so thin that most laminators don’t support them. However, these “economy” grade pouches are ideal for high volume output where flexibility and low cost are a priority. These items offer a basic level of protection for your documents but it is still easy to crease or bend the laminated output.
2. 3mil laminating pouches are the most commonly used laminating pouches for larger sized documents. These pouches offer a basic level of protection while still allowing documents to remain flexible. These pouches are too thin for laminating smaller items such as business cards (if cut down to smaller sizes they will curl). However, they are great for use with letter size, legal size and menu sized sheets.
3. 5mil laminating pouches are the thinnest pouches available for laminating smaller documents such as credit card size, bookmark size and index cards. They offer a small amount of additional rigidity to larger documents but are not overly rigid. These pouches are a good compromise for companies who want to give their laminated materials a premium feel without paying a premium price.
4. 7mil pouches offer even more rigidity than traditional five mil pouches. These pouches do offer a slightly heavier feel than 5mil pouches. However, most users who are looking for the extra heavy duty feel will opt for a 10mil pouch. The most common application for these pouches is for users that want to laminate small items such as business cards and name badges. These pouches offer a compromise between the ultra heavy duty 10mil option and the lightweight 5mil option (remember that small pouches aren’t available in smaller sizes.
5. 10mil laminating pouches are ideal for laminating documents and reference materials that are frequently handled or will be exposed to abuse. These pouches offer the most rigidity available and have a finished thickness that is slightly less than a credit card. These pouches are ideal for reference materials, flip charts and name badges.

Hopefully this should help you better understand the different sizes of laminating pouches that are available. Using this information you should be able to choose the thickness of pouches that you need based on the amount of rigidity that you want, the frequency with which the items will be handled and the capabilities of your pouch laminator. Good luck and happy laminating.

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Written by Jeff McRitchie
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