Advice needed on Cold mounting large prints.

[disneytoy]

Hi Again!

Well I got my Chinese 39" laminator. I have a roll of Drytac Multitac. I'm trying to mount on to 3mm Sintra.

I've watched the videos on youtube about adjusting the rollers, check.

Using a 25.5" roll of Multitac on a 30" x 40" 3mm Sintra, I got all kinds of ripples:-(

The tension is good. I had success with an 18" roll from another company.

I think my issue is getting the edge of the sintra perfectly aligned with the film. I mean it appears the center of the sintra adhered to the film before the sides.

Any tips:

1) Even on a successful lamination, the board went through at a skew. Luckily the board was over-sized.

2) I am rolling over the adhesive and letting the film wrap from the bottom of the sintra over to the top and pushing through. (as shown on the Zenith videos).

I did get 2 usable boards but the first is junk.

Any advice?

Thanks

Max

[LenR]

Are your rollers set up so they're touching each other?

[disneytoy]

The rollers are set up according to the Zenith video. lightly touching sintra, then a wrists turn tighter. It works.  I do notice some air bubbles under the release paper after the adhesive is mounted to trhe substrate. Not sure if it is just the release liner causing the bubbles. Hope so.

I haven't mounted a print yet. Tonight

Thanks

Max

[LenR]

It's been a while but I found it to be so thin I just set my nip for 0 And that worked for me.  I had a real laminator and I could set the tension for whatever I was running.  How do you hold the adhesive while applying it? 
Have you considered making life easy on yourself and just using self adhesive foam-core to start with.

[disneytoy]

You are probaby right about self adhesive, but I still need to mount the print to the board.

The adhesive roll is held by gravity on the outtake of the rollers. The adhesive sif is face out over the roller.

This is 25" roll. I have 38" coming in, it seems the longer the harder to get going.

[LenR]

What I meant was to mount your print to SA Foam-core instead of sintra. 
 

[LenR]

I've never used one of those machines but I would think you would have to hold/pull the roll (to add tension) while pulling a little to insure a tight contact with the top roller as it wraps around and gets applied to your substrate.

[disneytoy]

Thanks. Foamcore is not hard enough at larger sizes and can get dings. I dont want the headache of cutting gatorboard or the cost aluminum panels.

Interesting about the tension. You don't want the adhesive to actually make contact with the bottom roller.

I'm just learning.

[Richard.Wills]

What we've found for the motorised JM44, is to drop roller down, until the rise/fall wheels go slack (so the top roller is resting on the substrate), then back off by a quarter/eighth turn.

Cut a piece of board 2-3" deep, by the width of the adhesive, and apply that through the laminator first, as a leader board. then pull it back to the reverse of the nip (i.e. so it at the exit of the rollers). Then you have a better chance of loading the substrate parallel to the nip.

On the motorised rollers, we keep a moderate tension (fingertip braking) on the feed roll, to avoid "bagging", which is one of the ways of making waves and bubbles. The good thing about using a self-wound adhesive, is that you get to re-use the leader boards, as they already have a silicon release layer on top.

For the sake of sanity, perhaps cut some longer 8-12" leader boards, to confirm that you've got parallel loading sussed.
Also, be aware that when you've cut the board from the roll, any adhesive which has left the feed roll is likely to only be good for loading onto  leader boards (i.e. its wasted for mounting purposes).

Good luck - two out of three aint bad.

[Ernst Dinkla]

Good luck - two out of three aint bad.

My thought too when I saw the message first time.

I wondered whether Max's laminator pressure rolls are biconical, thicker in the center than at the ends, more often found in small diameter rolls to compensate the bending of the axle inside and stretching the film parallel to the roll length as well. Some can work with that concept but I was a bit sceptic how it would behave in practice.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
December 2014 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots

[LenR]

As Ernst mentioned, if your rollers are crowned that might explain why the center makes better contact than the edges.  If so, crank it down for the correct nip at the edges.  I used to do what Richard said except I left my top roller down and found the Sinatra to be hard enough to lift it as it went through. The weight of the (62") top roller provided enough pressure for perfect applications.

[disneytoy]

Thsnks Guys!
I think the "bagging" was caused by my first 30x40 board beingcupped as it adhered to the film. Like a loose sheet on a bet.

I think my roller tension is good. I can push the board through with moderare resistance.

What about speed? Should I feeed my sintra slower? Or does that matter. The Zenith guy seemed to shove it through fast.

Believe it or not. I haven't yet mounted a photoi to a board yet:-) Next.

Mini review:

My Trans8 39" cold laminator arrived in a large cardboard box. The in and out take shelves are a bit flimsy. But the rollers seen true and heavy weight. Other parts are lightweight plastic.

Hopefully for my limited needs it will suffice. But this would not be for large productions.

In the end it cost me $160 delivered for a 1 meter laminator. I dont believe the rollers are silicone, So I will be careful about getting adhesive on the rollers.

Crossed fingers:-)

Max