FAQ

Only if your laminator has a temperature control, then you need to set it according to the thickness of laminating pouch to be processed. A too low temperature will lead to an improper bond to the document, whilst a too high setting may damage the document. It’s the Goldilocks equation; the one in between is ‘just right.’

Do you touch the iron to see if it’s hot? Do you try and open the door before putting in the key? OF COURSE you have to wait. Before you can process any Hot Laminating Pouches (which is the most widely used type), you need to wait until the laminator has reached operating temperature. A READY light will illuminate (and stay on) to indicate when that is the case. Some machines also offer an audible beep additionally to indicate the same. Soon we will invent a machine that shouts at you in German until it is ready. Warm-up times vary between different laminating machine models and are also affected by ambient temperature, they are typically a few minutes. If you are on the planet Mercury you will not have to wait at all as the ambient temperature is 900º F - unless you are on the other side where it is -173º. If you are processing Cold Laminating Pouches, the machine is set to COLD, and there is no time delay, you can start immediately with the laminating process. We do not currently deliver to Mercury.

To decide which pouch laminator best suits your needs, first consider how many pieces you typically laminate per day, which width of lamination is required and what is the maximum film weight you wish to use.

Do not under any circumstances feed WILD pouches. However, with any kind of domestic laminating pouch, the method is simple and relatively harmless. After placing the document into the pouch in a way that it is centred in both directions, insert the pouch with the SEALED EDGE first. Failure to do this will result in your laminator getting very annoyed and making rude squeaking noises. Refer to the next point below.

Firstly, make sure you have brushed you teeth and had a PROPER breakfast. None of that ‘eating as you are flying out the door’ business. Secondly, ensure that both the document and the laminating pouch are in the same room, free from anything foreign like lint, bits of paper, hair, small marsupials or construction equipment etc. Centre the document along the sealed edge, ensuring it is square to this edge, which will ensure that the sides of the document are running parallel to the edges of the pouch when measured within the golden ratio. You should have an equal amount of "excess pouch" around your document. Be careful not to engage your own “excess pouch” in the machine also. With any standard size, this will be 3 mm all round. For example, an A4 pouch measures 303 x 216 mm, leaving a 3 mm clear space to each side of the document, which is 297 x 210 mm But if you are American it will be some undecipherable fraction of a something or other. This clear space around the document is vital, because it ensures that the document is sealed in the true sense, and thus also makes it waterproof and suitable for goldfish.

A laminating pouch is made of two flaps sealed on one side. The thickness of the pouch refers to the thickness of each flap of the pouch e.g. an 80 mic pouch means that each flap is 80 mic thick.

No cheap laminators for you then, Mr professional! A professional heavy duty type laminator depends on the cooling fans to cool down from the typical high operating temperatures. Therefore, as a general advice, when you intend to shut the machine down, first select the lowest temperate available (typically "0 degrees"), then let the machine cool down sufficiently (just like decommissioning a nuclear power plant). If available, use the "MEASURE" feature to verify current temperature, before turning the machine to OFF. Just like humans, laminators need a cooling off period too. Refer to the operating manual for recommended procedure and duration of cooling down period. There’s no instruction manual for people though.

Oh you are so impatient! No, you need to wait at least some minutes*, depending on the previous operating temperature, as well ambient temperature. Note that the READY light will continue to be illuminated once COLD is selected. The rollers however need sufficient time to cool down to near room temperature. Tip: If you have some cold lamination pouches to process, do the cold pouches first. Warm-up time is generally less than cool-down time. In the same way that quantum time is inversely proportional to normal time. * ‘Some minutes’ a little known time scale used to measure the age of the universe, as in; ‘The big bang took place ‘some minutes’ ago with the last estimates pointing to upwards of 13 billion years.”

High Speed laminating pouches are available in A4 and Letter size format for that particular class of people who are born impatient. You know, the ones that constantly press the lift button despite the fact it is on its way to level 43, or the ones that press the pedestrian button 85 times in the space of twelve seconds in the forlorn hope that the green crossing sign will spontaneously ignite. More fool them. High Speed laminating pouches differ to their standard counterparts, these pouches are sealed on their long side. Therefore, these High-Speed pouches require an A3 (12") laminator, so they can be processed in landscape orientation, with the sealed edge going through first, as always. You have been paying attention haven’t you? This way, the distance that an A4 pouch travels through an A3 laminator is only 216 mm, compared to 303 mm in a A4 machine. This is of course 1.402777777777778 more efficient. Which equates to a speed advantage of around 30% or seventeen lifetimes for those impatient people we all have to put up with. Similar savings are obtained with Letter format pouches. And that, as they say, is that.

Max Pouch Thickness refers to the maximum thickness of the laminating pouch, that is suitable to be laminated, in that particular machine.

Max Strength of Laminate refers to the maximum thickness of the document, that is suitable to be laminated, in that particular machine.

Hot lamination requires heat to activate the bonding process. The laminator's heated rollers activate the adhesive which binds the laminating film to the material being laminated. Cold lamination does not require heat to activate the bonding adhesive. Cold lamination uses a pressure-sensitive adhesive to bind the film to the material being laminated.

Labelling of switches may differ between brands of laminators. First, make sure that your laminator offers Cold Lamination. A basic laminator with a 2 position HOT (ON) - OFF switch will not allow processing of a cold lamination pouch no matter how hard you jam it in. If your laminator has a single switch with 3 positions (COLD-OFF-HOT): Set it to COLD. If you find 2 switches: One of them needs to be in the ON position, and the other one selected to COLD. If it has 4 buttons - (WARM, DEFROST, TOAST and CRUMPET - and a vertical slider, you are in fact trying to use the toaster.

Labelling of switches may differ between brands of laminators. In general If your laminator has a single 2 position switch: set it to HOT (ON). If it is a single switch with 3 positions (COLD-OFF-HOT): Set it to HOT. And if you find 2 switches: One of them needs to be in ON position, and the other one selected to HOT. If it has no switches, you are looking at the BACK of the machine. We suggest you turn it around. If however, it is made of grey metal, about forty feet wide, full of blinking lights and has a large red button labelled “LAUNCH” we suggest you DO NOT touch anything and get a responsible adult to escort you from the room.

Instruction manuals can be downloaded from the Pfeiffer website at www.pfeifferoffice.com.

Instruction manuals can be downloaded from the Pfeiffer website at www.pfeifferoffice.com.

Use self-adhesive pouches, also known as cold lamination pouches, on a cold setting, when laminating heat sensitive material such as thermal paper, ultrasounds and tickets.

OK picture this. You are going sky diving. You are in the plane. Look! The engine is off, but the door is open. You shout ‘geronimo’ and jump out while instantly pulling the rip-cord. Less than a second later you are face down in the grass. It’s exactly the same for laminating. If the rollers have not reached their operating temperature, the adhesive component of the laminating film will not melt properly and therefore not adhere to the substrate. Rather, the adhesive will have clumped with the document, and therefore this cannot be improved by processing the same pouch a second time. Permanent damage to the document is the result.

Presuming you have NOT read the above: Inserting a laminating pouch in any other way than the SEALED EDGE first will result in the two flaps of the pouch to be misaligned, exposing the adhesive directly to the rollers or causing small thermo nuclear ‘events’ which can be annoying. The rollers will accumulate the adhesive, which will cause damage to them and make everything in the office stick together (except management and workers), and the risk is that either the pouch currently being processed, or one being processed later - even though that one may have been inserted correctly - will stick to the rollers and get wrapped around it, causing further damage to the laminator and resulting in your premature exit from your current employment.