While pouch laminators have been the preferred choice for laminating small documents for many years, an increasing number of organizations have been replacing their pouch laminators with compact roll laminators. With sizes from 12″ to 13″ wide, these office-friendly laminators use bulk film rolls instead of pre-cut laminating pouches, which can lower your supply costs. In this article, we take a closer look at the Tamerica VersaLam 1300, a heavy-duty 13″ roll laminator that can mount, laminate up to 10 mil, and even perform single-sided lamination.
The basics
Tamerica’s VersaLam 1300 is a 13″ roll laminator that is capable of laminating film thicknesses ranging from 1.5 to 10 mil. Unlike other similarly sized roll laminators, the VersaLam has a 3″ core ( using the core adapters included along with the standard). 1″ core), allowing you to use larger rolls of film (up to 500′) and a greater variety of film types. Many professional quality films are only available with a 3″ core, making the VersaLam 1300 in the only 13″ laminator. Capable of using specialty films such as DIGIKote, Super-Lam, and nylon laminating film. Although its lamination speed is a modest 4′ per minute, it can mount up to 3/16″, has High-quality heated silicone rollers, includes a metal support roller, and comes with a one-year warranty.
In addition, the VersaLam 1300 can perform both two-sided and one-sided lamination. It is equipped with curling bars that counteract the curling tendency of documents that are only laminated on one side to help ensure a flat finished product. It also has a separate on/off switch for the bottom roller, so the heat can be turned off during single-sided lamination.
In Review
Small roll laminators (with a lamination width of 13″ or less) are gaining popularity among schools, copy centers, churches, offices, and even home users because they have lower supply costs compared to pouch laminators and can often increase production speed (as documents can simply be fed into the machine rather than manually inserted into the pouches.) While there are a number of quality entry level machines from There are very few professional-grade machines this size.The VersaLam 1300 is capable of laminating films up to 10 mil thick, can use rolls with 1″ and 3″ core sizes, mounts up to 3/16″ thick and includes a heavy-duty rolling metal stand. It is also capable of single-sided and double-sided lamination, thanks to built-in smoothing bars and a separate heating switch for the lower roller.
Although the VersaLam 1300 may be too much of an investment for small offices, it is by far the most affordable machine on the market when it comes to single-sided lamination. It’s also the only 13″ machine to use heated silicone rollers instead of hot shoes (which tend to leave little scratches on the film when you run over them). It doesn’t take up a lot of space, so you’ll definitely want to consider the VersaLam 1300.