Laminating Supplies

If you have made the choice to get a laminator, you will also need laminator supplies. Depending on the laminator, it might come with lamination supplies such as film or pouches or you might have to buy these also. It is easier to buy everything at the same time so you can start laminating right away.

Laminating Pouches

Lamination pouches are plastic pockets of material. You put the document you want to laminate inside and feed it through a hot laminator, which will bind the layers together and seal the pouch. Excess parts of the pouch can be trimmed off when the item has been laminated. You can get laminating pouches in different thicknesses and sizes. The thicker the pouch, the more durable and stiff your laminated item will come out.

Laminating Film

Some laminators use film rather than pouches and these also come in different thicknesses and widths. The thicker the film you use, the more durable and stiff the laminated item will come out. Some laminating films are low melt films, meaning they need less heat. You can use these for heat sensitive items, such as photographs.

If you use a film laminator, you also have the choice of whether to laminate one side or both sides of an item. You might want to laminate a poster on the front only, if the back is going to be mounted on to a board. These laminating films come in different finishes, such as satin, matte and gloss.

You can get both laminating pouches and laminating film in different sizes, with A3 and A4 laminate pouches being the most common. If you are going to be printing documents of different sizes, it might be a good idea to get A3 laminating pouches or film because you can always laminate two smaller documents at once if you do not need the whole of the A3 laminate sheet. An A3 laminator will laminate A3 and smaller sizes too.

Self-Laminating Sheets

You can get self-laminating sheets if you just do the occasional laminating job or if you want to laminate something on the go. With these, you place the document between the sheets and seal it yourself without a laminator. If you do more than the very occasional bit of laminating though, it is best to get a laminating machine for superior results and ease of use.

ID Supplies

Laminators can be used to make ID cards and supplies for these laminators include hologram ID cards, ID cards with magnetic strips or barcodes and the film to laminate them with.

Other lamination supplies include attachable pins and clips, retractable badge reels, luggage straps, lanyards and protective carriers. Obviously your need for these will depend what you are laminating.

You can get laminating supplies online or at a stationery store but it is worth stocking up on lamination supplies because they keep for a long time and you do not want to suddenly run out of laminating film or pouches when you need to laminate something.

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