One of the best ways to make your documents last
a good long time is by processing them with a pouch laminator. There
are many such devices on the market and there are ones that are good for
different environments including the office, print shop, and classroom.
If you have never used one of these machines before, you're probably
wondering how to do so. It's actually pretty easy for beginners and
professionals alike. Here's how to use a pouch laminator in five easy
steps.
One of the best ways to make your documents
last a good long time is by processing them with a pouch laminator.
There are many such devices on the market and there are ones that are
good for different environments including the office, print shop, and
classroom. If you've never used one of these machines before, you're
probably wondering how to do so. It's actually pretty easy for beginners
and professionals alike. Here's how to use a pouch laminator in five
easy steps.
First of all, plug in your laminator and then turn
it on. Depending on which machine you have, you might need to let it
warm up for a few minutes before you can use it. (The device's
instruction manual will have information regarding this.) You should
pick out the laminating pouches you plan to use. Keep in mind that
pouches range in thickness from 1.5 to 10 mil. Thicker pouches will give
your document more protection.
You should
now choose the appropriate temperature setting. The setting you choose
will be based on how thick the pouch is. Thicker supplies require more
heat so all the adhesive will melt. Some machines have a Celsius and/or
Fahrenheit scale while others have settings marked by pouch thickness.
If you have any trouble deciding on which setting to use, refer to the
machine's instruction manual. When you know which setting to use, select
it and wait for the machine to reach the appropriate temperature.
Place
your document or photograph in the laminating pouch. Center it
appropriately, ensuring there are equal borders around the item. Then
place the pouch in a carrier so adhesive doesn't seep out of it and
damage the device while it's running through the machine. Insert the
carrier into the machine with the folded edge going in first. The
machine will grab hole of the carrier and begin laminating your item.
The
carrier will exit at the back of the laminator. Set the item aside for a
few minutes to let it cool off. Make sure you don't handle your
document too much. This can cause damage the finished product. When your
work has cooled off, remove it from the carrier. Be sure to save the
carrier for future use as a single one can be used dozens of times.
If
you have anything else you need to laminate, just go through steps one
through four again. (Although you don't need to turn the laminator on
again unless you already turned it off.) When you're all done, let the
laminator cool off before shutting it down.
Those are the five steps you need to follow when using a pouch
laminator. As you can see, using this type of machine is really quite
easy even if you've never laminated a single thing before. Best of all,
this process will help you protect those important documents and
photographs so you can get a lot of use out of them. Trying going
through these five easy steps with your pouch laminator today.
Jeff McRitchie is the Director of Marketing for MyBinding.com.
He regularly writes articles, reviews, and blog posts on topics related
to bookbinding, laminating, paper shredding, and office equipment. More
than 2,500 of his articles have been published in thousands of
locations on the Internet. If you're looking for information about pouch laminators his articles are a great place to start.
