It's all about the features of the machine! Popp offers four excellent choices for thermal 27" roll laminators. These systems are reliable and capable of handling any project, small or large. Our units come with a range of user friendly control panels. The TCC2700 & Phoenix 2700DH are cost effective solutions for school, office, copy or prints shops. Their tabletop design is great for small working areas. The Prolam R27 is a heavy-duty laminator that is a versatile workhorse that can handle all of your most demanding jobs. The Phoenix 2700 DHP is the smart choice for production environments looking for an economical, easy to use unit. Designed to offer maximum flexibility to accomplish mounting on a large variety of substrates.

Depends on your usage, it's all about the features! The ProLam 160 is a 4" unit, which is great for laminating small cards only; the ProLam 330 is our most popular unit as it is affordable and has a 13" throat opening to accommodate an ID card size up to 12" x 18" size;  The ProLam Ultra is a favorite for commercial use with it's 7 memory settings that ensure the correct temperature and speed for different pouch thickness. This superior unit features an air cooling system and auto shutoff. All units are designed for crystal-clear and bubble-free lamination and one year warranty.

We recommend leaving at least a 1/8" border around laminated documents. This will allow the plastic to properly adhere both to itself and to your document; if you trim your project flush to the edge of the document, moisture and dirt can get between the lamination and damage your document, and the film can eventually start peeling away.

We recommend a rotary trimmer, a zippy cutter, a craft knife (like X-acto), or of course, a regular pair of scissors.

Heat wrinkles form when the film hasn't cooled properly before coming off the back of the machine. You want your laminated document to cool below the melt temperature of the film while it's still being pulled tight between the rollers—this is the main reason that laminators have fans on them—to cool the item, not to cool the machine down.The fix for heat wrinkles is to slow the machine speed down slightly so that the item has a chance to cool before exiting the back of the machine.

If your laminated item is curling up or down after it's gone through the machine, check your user manual for instructions for “film tension.” You'll need to adjust either the top or bottom tension to correct this problem (typically, if the film curls upward, you'd adjust the bottom tension; if the film curls downward, you'd adjust the top tension). If your tension is correct but you're getting waves toward the center of the web film as it comes out the back, you've probably got “heat waves,” and you'll need to turn the temp down or slow your speed down a little bit.

UV film is used specifically for outdoor use such as billboard or the sides of buses. UV film protects your document against the weather and the sun for 3–5 years longer than standard laminating film without the protective UV coating.

Yes! You can write on all of our laminating films. Permanent marker will stay on the material indefinitely; dry erase marker will wipe off just as it would from a marker board; pencil can be used on matte film only and can be erased off.

A mil is one-thousandth of an inch (0.001"or 1/1000"). The thickness of a single layer of laminating film (including both the film and the adhesive) is measured in mils. Because most lamination applications are double-sided, the actual thickness of the film is double (so a document laminated in a 3 mil pouch will actually be 6 mils thick). The smaller the mils, the thinner and less rigid the film once it's been melted.

A laminating carrier is a sheet of specially-coated heavy white card stock folded on one side and open on the other three sides. The item to be laminated is placed inside a laminating pouch and then placed inside the carrier before being fed through the pouch laminator. Not all pouch laminators require carriers, so consult your machine's user manual to determine whether yours needs a carrier or not. The carrier helps prevent adhesive from getting onto your machine's rollers.

If your pouch gets stuck inside your machine, try running a carrier through the machine. Many times, this will push the stuck pouch out of the rollers.

For cleaning and all other questions, we always recommend that you refer first to your user manual for information specific to your machine. In general, we recommend that you run a sheet of 80lb cover stock or an empty carrier through your machine while it's still hot, if you're just needing to pull adhesive off the rollers.  You can purchase our cleaning erasers which you can use to “erase” adhesive from your machine's rollers. For additional information, you can also check out our blog post “Pouch Laminating: Perfect Results Every Time!” which has information on cleaning your pouch laminator.

*Note: Never use a straight edge, razor blade, or X-acto knife to clean your rollers.

Your pouch should be at least 1/8" larger on all four sides than the item you're laminating. We sell specially-sized pouches for business cards and other small items; for larger items, you can use a large laminating pouch and then trim it down to size (again, leaving 1/8"border on each side).

Refer to your laminating machine manual for specific information on temperatures, but in general, you'll run 3 mil pouches at 275º, 5 mil pouches at 285º, 7 mil at 300º, and 10 mil at 340º.

On a 13"pouch laminator, you can laminate 120 large pouches or 300 small pouches per hour

You can tell when temperature adjustments should be made by how your pouches look. If your pouches come out of your machine cloudy, your temperature is too low and you need to turn it up. If your pouches come off your laminating machine wrinkled, bubbled, or curled, your temperature is too high and you need to reduce the heat.

If you see severe wrinkles on both sides of your laminated items, you probably have neglected to close and lock your laminating rollers. Check your roller opening/closing controls.

You may also get wrinkles if your rolls aren't tensioned properly. All laminators need a certain amount of resistance as the supply roll unwinds—this keep the film lying flat as it feeds through the rollers.

If the top of your document is unwrinkled but the bottom has a lot of bubbles and wrinkles, then check that your bottom idler is threaded per your user manual's directions. If you've checked your rollers and your idler but you're still having difficulties, here are three more suggestions:

1. 1. 1. Make sure the film path is correct for both the top and bottom webs

      2. Make sure the film is threaded around both the top and bottom idlers

      3. Make sure the machine is up to temperature before running items through

For cleaning, we always recommend that you refer to your user manual for information specific to your machine. In general, you can use a little denatured alcohol and a mildly abrasive scrubber to clean your rollers. You can purchase our cleaning erasers which you can use to “erase” adhesive from your machine's rollers. For additional information, you can also check out our blog post “Get on a Roll with Your Heated Roll Laminator” which has information on cleaning your pouch laminator.

*Note: Never use a straight edge, razor blade, or X-acto knife to clean your rollers.

“Poly-in” means that the heat activated adhesive is rolled toward the inside of the film rolls—this is the most common arrangement.

Thicker laminating film has a thicker layer of glue which requires a lower temperature.

Always refer to your roll laminator's user manual for information on temperature settings as machines run differently. 

In general, however, these are the temperature settings you would use:
School Grade Films: 270-315 degrees
For general purpose film: 240–300º
For premium films:  220º–260º    

The maximum film gauge you can use is 10 mil; the maximum laminating thickness is 1/8".

You can run 1000'of 1.5 mil film and 500' of 3 mil film.