MyBinding Knowledge Base
Can I use foil with my pouch laminator?
If you’ve had your pouch laminator for a while, you’re probably very familiar with how it works and what you can do with it. In fact, you probably use it on a regular basis to protect your important documents like business cards, certificates, and the like. However, you can also do other things with your laminator. One of them is adding foil to your work. After all, items such as business cards, advertisements, letterhead, and so on always look good when they have a bit of a shine to them. The good news is that it’s easy to do this with your laminator. Let’s take a look at how to do so….
- First of all, you’re going to need to gather up some supplies. You’re going to need: your pouch laminator with adjustable temperature settings; scissors; a roll of foil that’s receptive to toner; a laminating pouch carrier; and access to a photocopier. If there isn’t one available, a laser printer will work too.
- Next, warm up your laminator. This shouldn’t take very long – probably just 5 minutes at most. You’re going to need to adjust the temperature setting and make sure it’s pretty high. It should be from 250 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. (If you’re using the Celsius scale, that’s about 150 degrees.) The temperature needs to be high to get the foil to adhere to your documents. At this time, gather up some laminating pouches that are 10 mil thick.
- Now you can begin preparing your document. Hopefully you printed it on either a photocopier or laser printer. (The foil you’re using won’t stick to water- or wax-based inks/toners.) Cut the foil down to size so it covers the area where you want it to go and then place everything in a laminating carrier.
- At this point, you can run your document through the machine so long as it’s reached the appropriate temperature. As the item makes its way through the laminator, the foil will become fused to the toner so your document will end up looking great. When the item comes out, carefully remove it from the carrier and then peel the excess foil away. Leave the item alone then so it has a chance to cool off. Once it’s cool you can use your item as you see fit and take pride in your work.
< 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)
