MyBinding Knowledge Base
Why should I use a carrier?
One of the best ways to create beautifully laminated documents and prolong the life of your laminator is by using a carrier when laminating. If you haven’t used a carrier before, you might be wondering why you should do so. Here are four reasons why you should use a carrier with a pouch laminator:
- Whenever you run a document through your laminator, the machine’s heating element activates the adhesive inside the pouch. Needless to say, the adhesive is quite sticky and it can seep out of the pouch and coat the gears, rollers, etc. This
- If adhesive starts building up on your machine’s rollers, you’re going to have to deal with a lot of pouch jams. This can be time-consuming and frustrating, and leave you with a lot of ruined documents. Using a carrier will help prevent this from happening. Not only will the carrier prevent adhesive from seeping out of the pouch, it will help your document stay flat as it moves through the machine.
- Using a carrier is a great way to end up with a document that’s beautifully laminated and free from heat marks, wrinkles, and bubbles. If there are any bits of adhesive on the rollers, the carrier will protect your document from them so your work will look fantastic.
- Your document is going to be very hot when it comes out of the laminator and it will need to cool off before you can use it. If the item is in carrier, it will be protected from marks and fingerprints as you set it aside to cool off.
< Over the years, a number of customers have asked me whether they can use twin loop wire with their plastic comb binding machine. These customers often don’t want to have to buy a brand new machine but like the look and feel of twin loop wire binding. However, the answer to their question isn’t as simple as it seems. You see, they actually do make twin loop wire that is designed to work with the plastic comb binding hole pattern. With that said, if you want to use these wires you are going to need a way to close the wires. What is Spiral-O Wire? Let me explain a little bit more…There is a product that we carry called Spiral-O Wire. This wire has 19 loops and is designed to work with the hole pattern from a plastic comb binding machine. Spiral-O Wire is sometimes called Wire Combs or Ibico Wire and was originally designed for use with some of the older Ibico binding machines. A number of the older Ibico plastic comb binding machines also included a twin loop wire closer on the front of them to allow users to use both plastic combs and wire. This 19 loop wire was designed for this purpose. What Equipment is Needed? As the Ibico brand has been phased out by GBC and all of the older Ibico plastic binding machines have been replaced with new models, they no longer have the twin loop wire closer on the front of them. This presents a problem in trying to use these spiral-o wires since you can’t use the wires without a way to close them. One of the only options left is to purchase a Twin Loop wire closer. However, since twin loop wire closers are not incredibly cheap this option usually only appeals to users who have larger electric plastic comb binding machines. Otherwise, it is often advisable to simply buy a low end 3:1 pitch twin loop wire binding machine (the supplies are cheaper). This being said, if you have one of the older Ibico binding machines that has a wire closer included you are in luck. The Spiral-O binding supplies that we carry will work perfectly with your machine and you will be able to use both plastic combs and wire depending on your needs. These Spiral-O binding supplies are available in Black, Silver, White, Blue and Red and in sizes up to 1″ in diameter. If you aren’t sure what type of wire binding supplies that you need to work with your machine simply give us a call. Our trained sales representatives will be glad to help you find the correct supplies for use with your machine.(Read More)
