PRODUCT PORTFOLIO: Buyers' Guide - Laminating & encapsulating.(laminating, encapsulating equipment)(Brief Article)

Laminating and encapsulating seems relatively untouched by the state of the economy. Darryl Danielli reports

The laminating market seems to be one of the few sectors not suffering in the current economic climate. Clients are seeing the value-added process as a real boon to their products, adding to both durability and aesthetics.

'The UK market has been just amazing since Ipex, everything seems to be booming,' says Autobond managing director John Gilmore.

Thermal has led to many printers offering an in-house lamination facility, mainly because it is still seen as being easier to produce than its 'wet' rival - that's not to say that the wet process is in any way difficult, just perhaps more involved. The rise in in-house installations has taken some market share away from trade laminators and finishers, but this is balanced to an extent by a buoyant market.

Encapsulating is an established process, with few technology changes.

However, like laminating, encapsulating has been affected by the advent of digital print - particularly wide-format, in runs of as little as one, which requires heavy-duty protection for use in exterior, or semi-interior environments. Many manufacturers of encapsulating kit are beginning to turn out wider film and machines to accommodate the large-format demand, and images of up to several metres wide by any length can now be encapsulated for longer life and greater resistance against UV deterioration and general airborne pollution; or even treated with a textured film for heavy-duty applications such as floor graphics.

Printers looking to add a laminating facility should consider how much work will be laminated and the run lengths involved. Wet systems are, as a rule, more expensive, but dry systems can't match them for speed - these differences are however, continually being blurred by every new generation of machine. The price of consumables is also a factor - water-based products are about half that of thermal. Dual-purpose machines (not to be confused with dual-side laminators) allow both thermal and wet lamination to be run. Where there used ...