Best Professional Laminators
When laminators are bought for your office or to your school, the amount of work that this will take up will be humongous. So if you are in the process of finding out the best laminator that will give you the maximum value for money, then you should not miss this article. In this article, we will be giving different regions on selecting a laminator which decides the performance of the laminator. On the basis of this performance area, we will also give you top 5 laminators which can give you a high productivity.
The Performance Points
So let’s get into the details of performance areas where a laminator should distinguish it. The first and foremost area where a laminator should show its worth is the heating time that it will take. During our research, we have found that a laminator having a heating time of fewer than 5 minutes can be taken into a good laminator category. In our list of recommendations, we will be giving you laminators which will have the heating time of fewer than 3 minutes. Those laminators having a heating time of more than 8 minutes should not be considered as that will severely affect your productivity.
jam Reduction Technology
Jamming up of documents is a severe problem in laminators. But now certain manufacturers have put up some serious research into this subject and have come up with some useful technologies. This will help you from not damaging your documents. So while going for a laminator shopping don’t give away the laminator jam reduction mechanism.
Hot and Cold Lamination
There are two types of lamination techniques. They are lamination by heating the pouches and lamination by just applying pressure on the pouches. For cold lamination, the pouches used will also be different, as they will have self-adhesive nature. These two types of lamination are to be done according to the thickness of the document. In an office or school, we cannot predict the type of document that comes up for lamination. So it is always better to have a laminator which can do both kinds of lamination.
Laminating Speed
Before buying a laminator you will have an estimate of work that this laminator will have once it is purchased. So give importance to the speed at which the laminator laminates. Usually, the speed of lamination is measured at inches/minute. Some of the fastest laminators will have a speed of 9inches per minute. This is of the fastest laminators. But once you have the estimate of what work your laminator will have. You can easily decide on what speed a laminator should have. and this will significantly help you optimizing the price of the laminator according to your need.
Auto Cut Off Technology
Power saving is another important feature that a device in the office or school should have. This feature will automatically shut down your device if it is idle for more than a specified period of time. Usually, this time is 1 hour, and it can vary on different devices. This auto cut off technology will help you significantly in reducing the power consumption. So you will always have to look into the auto cut off technology. In addition to that can also look into the indication light features, which will help you understand whether the device is ready for lamination.
If you give importance to the above-mentioned criteria, then your selection for a good laminator can be made simple and cost-effective. The following section gives you some suggestions, as we find these laminators best in performance for office or school usage.
Professional Laminators – The Best List
Fellowes Laminator Saturn3i 125 – The Best
This is yet another stylish device from Fellowes. This device all the features to rate it high in the performance but the application of these features are in a basic way. So this device is less sophisticated than the other devices in this list. It has a jam prevention lever which will help you stop the lamination process if any jamming occurs. And you can restart your process within few minutes. This device also has a hat and cold lamination options. Thus, helps you to laminate more wide range of documents. It also has an auto cut off and also has mechanisms that will prevent it from overheating.
This device provides almost all the features that a top end laminator will give you. But ease of using these features will be a little low as they have employed all this in a basic manner. But this has surely reflected in the price tag that it carries and when you read all these together, this device will be a good investment.
Price Range: $80- $100
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APACHE AL9 9” – Cheap and Best
This laminator comes first on our list because of its high build quality. The motors and other components used in this laminator are durable and also reliable. It has a sleek design which can even fit into your drawer. This device has LED indication for understanding the status of the machine. It also has a unique ABS jam protection system which worked well for protecting the documents during our test runs. This device also comes with 4 roller system. So it is suitable for the user to perform both hot and cold lamination. The time that this machine takes for heating up is about 1 minute. The documents that can be laminated in this device can range from business cards to documents of the size of a4 sheets.
So, on the whole, this laminator will give all the necessary options that a laminator in office or school should have. And hence this laminator will be a good investment.
Price Range: $15 – $25
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Scotch Thermal Laminator – Best Below $50
Scotch is a well-known name in the office supply segment. And hence there is no wonder that the laminator that they produce comes into our list. The main reason that this laminator has found a place in our list is that of its nearly 0 jam free working. We have tested this laminator for quite some time and jamming has occurred very rarely. Despite the fact that it does not possess two modes of laminating this particular feature has impressed us very much. This laminator also heats up very quickly and hence you can take this device out and start laminating within few minutes after plugging it on.
If hassle-free lamination is our priority then you should go forward with this option of laminating device. As this will not take your valuable time for correcting jams issues and hence the productivity will surely be increasing.
Price Range: $30 – $50
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Fellowes Laminator Venus 2 125 – Top Class Performance
This is yet another innovative laminator from the Fellowes family. The inclusion of auto-detecting system for documents is simply impressive. With this technology, the laminator will identify the type of document inserted and then automatically sets the temperature for lamination. Thus it will give you perfect lamination without taking much of your time. This device also has a leer which helps you to realign any jammed documents. The heating time of this device is the shortest among the lot. Its speed is also pretty impressive. It can laminate documents of varying size, as it has an entry width of 12.5 inches. It also has a tray in the back side which helps you to collect the documents. This can be very useful as the laminated documents will be protected from folding.
On the whole, this device will give you a good value for money with its fast heating up and laminate speeds. The drawbacks of these devices come at the heavy design that it poses, as it weighs 21 pounds. The price tag is also slightly on the higher side. So if you want some fast lamination for documents of varying size then you can go for it.
Price Range: $200 – $250
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Fellowes Laminator Callisto 95
This laminator comes with a modern colour scheme for its body. This will help in attracting your attention towards it. As the style of this device, the performance is also pretty good. It has both the hot and cold lamination features. But in the manual, the manufacturers have forgotten to add how to use the cold lamination. Looks like you will have figured it out yourself. It has light and sound notification system, which will help you understand when the device is ready to laminate. The auto cut off feature helps in reducing your power consumption. It also has the feature to protect your documents from jamming.
One thing that has to be kept in mind is that there should enough space behind the space while using this device as the laminated documents will be rolled out in that direction. One thing that this device has, which keeps it out of the crowd is the variable temperature setting. The user can adjust the temperature of the lamination process, which most of its competitors do not have.
So when the question comes of buying this device, you should give your thought to the fact that, this machine gives a few hiccups while heating up. In every other sense, this machine is on par with its competitors. The build quality is good and also this device is capable of giving a good aesthetic value to your office.
Price Range: $100- $125