What are the strengths and weaknesses of a pouch board laminator?

Many sign shops, graphics studios and print shops who are looking to laminate and mount wide format documents are really impressed by the price point offered by Pouch Board Laminators. However, is most cases a pouch board laminator is not a good fit for these users. Here is why.

Pouch-board laminators are designed to do one thing well. These laminators are great for running pouch boards. Using pouch laminating boards with these laminators makes mounting easier than ever. You simply put your document between the foam core and the special pouch sleeve on it 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, signs, or documents onto a board, a pouch-board unit will be a perfect fit for you. However, most sign businesses, copy shops and graphics studios also need to do other types of laminating. If you ever believe that you will have a need to do other types of laminating, a board laminator is not a good option for you. Specifically, many sign shops, graphics studios and print shops need 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 these machines, 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 problems with curl and it is sometimes difficult to get bubble free and wrinkle free lamination. Additionally, the supplies for encapsulation with a laminator are extremely limited and can be more expensive than supplies used with a regular roll laminator.

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