As a professional who has been in a complicated world of adhesive labels, I have been able to realize that the final coating on any good sticker is lamination. In essence, in the case of laminating sticker paper, you are placing a transparent polymer film of film, generally biaxially-oriented polypropylene or polyester, over your printed image to give it formidable protection against ultraviolet light, water and abrasive forces. It is a sort of making your own art a suit of armor! The excitement that I usually experience when I look at a matte print and watch it turned into a vivid, glossy masterpiece with a well-laid laminate is pure excitement. But you have to be very careful, since there is the danger of being introduced with a second substrate of that there is the risk of being silvered–those small, irritable air bubbles that are entrap between the layers–when this is introduced. It is an exercise in patience and accuracy indeed.
Do you need a laminator to laminate stickers?
In fact, you will not require a huge costly thermal imprinting device to get a professional quality finish on your decals. Although a mechanical laminator offers a steady pressure, which to me is a very calming sight, you may easily use lamination sheets that are cold or even a good quality transparent vinyl overlay instead. We frequently use cold application in the sticker reserch business, so that the ink should not outgass under hot weather, and the horrible silvery bubbles appear below the surface. Wake up, any spoiled record collection makes me feel terribly depressed! When done by hand you can apply the laminate fabric using a basic squeegee or just a stiff credit card with a method called the hinge method. This is by fixing one end and rubbing the film gradually to make sure that there is no air trapped in between the microscopic crevices of the paper. A little finesse and a steady hand are needed, but the result is a rough waterproof covering which looks as pretty as anything that comes out of factory.
I truly believe that when using the manual lamination you have more control over the tension of the film, and thus you do not have that irritating curl that occurs when the machine is pulled too tight. In the case of the small-scale creators, bypassing the machine is not only a cost-saving solution, but it is frequently the more user-friendly option with all the versatility of different sticker thicknesses!
Sticker laminating hot or cold?
In the big discussion of thermal and pressure-sensitive application, I am confident that the best direction in most sticker adhesive applications is cold lamination. We have found in my lab that a thermal laminator can easily get the adhesive on the back of your sticker paper to melt or to ooze out around the edges–many times it is more than 230degF! It’s a total mess ! Moreover, most inkjet prints are susceptible to high temperatures, and extreme heat might cause color changes or bleeding your graphic image to ruins in your graphic. There is an actual feeling of anxiety in me, when I look at a fragile piece of vinyl stretched into a hot machine. A pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) is significantly less aggressive to the fragile polymer strands of the sticker substance under cold laminating. It literally laminates the ink between the paper and the film without the danger of thermal distortion or even the more usual “shrinkage” …. a bane of our business! The molecular bond between a cold laminate is highly strong provided that you exert enough uniform pressure to make sure that it wet-outs.
Hot laminating is all right with hard papers and sheets; but with the pliable, easily damaged world of custom decals, the cold laminating process is the unquestioned winner. I think the results are dimensionally more stable, i.e. your stickers will not begin to curl at the corners in a week after you made them. It is just a matter of structural integrity of the different layers involved !
How to laminate paper without a laminator?
In order to have a perfect lamination without the use of a huge machine, you need to learn how to apply pressure-sensitive stickers with a sheet of self-adhesive vinyl or a sheet of clear packing tapes. At my research plant we refer to it as dry-mounting, and it depends absolutely on whether you can handle the surface contact, without adding contaminants to it. I can really relax in peeling the backing paper slowly and pushing the air out with a felt-tipped squeegee – it is all about the angle of attack! When you drop the laminate in too fast a fashion you will be left with the trapped bubbles of the silvering that are literally a nightmare to get out. Instead, use the so-called hinge method: glue one side of your laminate to the table and place a hinge at the spot. Then take a hard edge, such as a thick ruler or a credit card, and, sweeping over the sheet, continually press down with the same amount of force. The film tends to let me relax as a wave of relief runs through me when it goes down in perfect flatness. Instead, you are more or less emulating the rollers of a professional laminator using your own hands. It will only have to remember that one must work in a dust-free atmosphere, since even a single particle of lint will become a mountain under the transparent film.
It is a crude, but most clever method of keeping off the weather your ink. This is the critical point the wet-out; and when this is applied, leave it twenty-four hours, to enable the adhesive to saturate the fibers of the paper to form a permanent, rough bond. It is an enjoyable procedure which shows that you do not have to use high-voltage equipment to achieve high-quality results !
What to use instead of lamination?
There is also the high stakes laboratory of surface coatings where at times the most beautiful answer is to go by-pass of the conventional films into a liquid-phase barrier. In case you do not have a plastic overlay, a high-quality aerosol fixative or a transparent acrylic spray would make an impressive alternative! This is technically a cured polymer resin shield bonding directly to the ink and the fibrous structure of the paper. I usually experience this intense feeling of amazement when a matte print all at once becomes shiny and waterproof with only several light sprays. A second neat solution is a transparent liquid varnish that is applied with a foam brush; but you must be exceedingly careful, as in case the varnish is too hot, or heavy in its solvent, it may, in fact, lead to the dissolution of your printed image! Horrifying , right ? To the more mechanical minded, clear adhesive vinyl, commonly marketed as shelf liner, is a more attractive heavy-duty substitute laminate. Although it is slightly heavier than a typical BOPP film, its shielding properties are really impressive in dealing with abrasion and UV decay .
I have been years dissecting on the permanence of such improvised coatings, and, though they are not as structurally rigid as a real laminate, they have a certain degree of flexibility, which is very useful in curved surfaces. It all comes down to making sure the coating does not yellow with age, as this would amount to a complete disaster with regard to your accuracy in color. Finally, whichever spray or a sheet of adhesive you use, secondarily, you are basically constructing a shield against the mean external world!
How can I laminate paper at home?
In order to laminate paper enclosed in a home studio, you will basically have to be a manual human roller press! The best domestic technique is making use of self-adhesive lamination sheets, which are simply large and transparent stickers aimed at wrapping up your substrate. I always begin by sweeping away my work table scrupulously; even a hair or dust particle can leave a lasting spot in which I would start shedding tears! You are going to want to cut away a slight slice of the liner, perhaps an inch, and attach it to your desk so as to establish a pivot-point. Next, roll your sticker paper slowly under the film with a felt-edge squeegee or a soft cloth rolled around a ruler to press down the paper firmly and downwards. A fine ballet of tension and alignment it is. Rushing it will cause the film to tunnel or crease and that is a nightmare to repair as fast as the adhesive bonds to the film nearly instantly. When the sheet comes out smooth as a sheet of paper without a silvering bubble at all I feel like a true rush of pride.
To make it the DIY, you may even use wide clear packaging tape in intersecting rows, but the seams may annoy a perfectionist like me. This is aimed at sealing out all the air holes so that the polymer film, and the paper fibers are made a single, water resistant entity. It is a dirty, practical affair that literally establishes union with the physical science of the trade in which you are engaged.
