Should I Buy a Pouch Board Laminator?

I recently had two different customers call and ask me about pouch board laminators. Both customers were looking to laminate and mount wide format documents and were really impressed by the price point offered by both the GBC Spartan Pouch Board Laminator and the ProSeal Pouch Board laminators. However, neither customer ended up buying a pouch board laminator. Here is why…

Pouch board laminators suc

h as the GBC Spartan Laminator and the ProSeal 25” and ProSeal 44” Laminators are designed to do one thing well. These pouch board laminators are great for running pouch boards. These boards make mounting easier than ever. Simply put your document between the foam core and the special pouch sleeve on the pouch board and feed it through the laminator. In a few minutes you have your mounted document. No messy adhesives, laminating rolls or other materials needed. It is really very simple.

If all you will ever need to do is mount posters, blueprints or documents onto a board, the ProSeal laminators and Spartan laminator are a perfect fit for you. However, if you ever have a need to do other types of laminating, a pouch board laminator is not a good option for you. Both of the customers that I recently talked to were looking to do encapsulation in addition to mounting. This is not a good application for a pouch board laminator.

Although large format laminating pouches are available for use with the ProSeal and Spartan Laminators these laminators are not designed for this application. Even when you run the large format laminating pouches through your pouch board laminator on the provided sleds, the documents often have extensive curl and it is sometimes difficult to get bubble free and wrinkle free lamination. Additionally, the supplies for encapsulation with a pouch board laminator are extremely limited and can be more expensive than supplies used with a regular roll laminator.

This being said, no other type of laminator makes mounting easier than a Pouch Board Laminator. Provided that mounting is all you want to do with your Pouch Board laminator it is a great option for you. Just recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the pouch board laminator and make an informed decision and you will be much happier with your choice in the long run.