School laminating is one of the most popular uses of lamination. Schools can use laminators for creating posters, visual aids, and durable reference sheets, as well as games, preserving artwork, making labels, and more. With the amount you can accomplish with a laminator buying one for your classroom is often a no-brainer, but how do you choose the right one?
How Frequently will the Laminator be Used?
We recommend the first step to buying a school laminator be taking stock of not just all you want to laminate but ask around to other faculty members as well. How will they benefit from having access to a laminator? How often will they need to use it?
Infrequently – A Couple Times a Month
If it seems like this laminator will only be used every now and then, a pouch laminator will easily get the job done. These laminators use precut laminating film to make laminating a breeze. These pouches come in a plethora of standard sizes from business cards to letter-sized to posters. Since the film is pre-cut the supplies for these machines can be slightly more expensive over time but the ease of use certainly outweighs the cost especially if you don’t have a use for bulk orders of laminating film. Learn more about pouch laminators here.
Frequently – Multiple Times a Week
If you are going to be laminating often a roll laminator might make the most sense. When you think of a standard school laminator a roll laminator is probably what comes to mind. These machines use rolls of laminating film that are applied to the top and bottom of your document as it feeds through the machine’s rollers. The continuous roll allows you to easily laminate custom sizes from small cards to 100’+ banners if you so desire. These machines have a higher upfront cost but the bulk rolls are the cheapest form of laminating film per inch. If you are laminating enough to utilize the large rolls the saved supply cost will soon pay for the machine. Plus, there are school roll laminators that are built with tight budgets in mind. They may not have the same level of customization as other machines but they offer a cheap roll laminator with simple controls to help minimize the learning curve. Learn more about roll laminators here.
Where will the Laminator Live?
Deciding where you want your laminator to be within your school and what space you can dedicate to it can greatly narrow down your options. Keeping in mind who will be using it and how frequently decide what might be the best spot for your new laminator.
Minimal Space – On a Desktop
If you are short on space and don’t have much to dedicate to a laminator don’t worry. Pouch laminators are often compact machines that can fit on any desktop. Especially if you only ever plan on laminating letter-sized documents and smaller. There are desktop roll laminators available but they will always be bulkier than their pouch counterparts. If you need to laminate larger items you will need table space that can accommodate with width but pouch laminators will always be the least invasive option.
Medium to Large Space – A Dedicated Spot in a Central Location
The school office or the library tend to be favorite spots for school laminators. This allows easy access for everyone. You can choose who has the most space or if it makes more sense to keep the machine with the often laminating administration or right next to the school's printing hub. If you have the space to dedicate to it you can really have your pick of the lot. If this sounds like you, a lot of your decision will come down to the size of items you plan on laminating. That being said it is important to consider where your laminator will sit. Pouch laminators will pretty much always require a table while some roll laminators are free-standing. Consider how you will set up your workstation. Where will you store your laminating supplies? The cleaning equipment? Do you need a cabinet or cart for your laminator to sit on to help optimize your space?
Mobile – Able to Transition Between Classrooms
The only thing more exciting than a TV on a cart is a laminator on a cart. If you want to be able to easily move your laminator around to where it is needed the most you have two options. Pouch laminators are compact and often lightweight enough that you will be able to simply pick them up and walk them to the next room. Roll laminators are far more bulky and awkward and you don’t want to worry about accidentally misaligning your film on the journey. This is where a laminating cart can come in handy. These carts put your non-freestanding laminator and often all of its supplies on wheels. This is a great way to allow your laminator to be mobile but keep everything you need together and organized.
How Big do You Need to be able to Laminate?
The final factor that is important to consider when school laminating is the size of item you are looking to laminate. What is the biggest project you will need to accommodate? We established in previous sections that pouch laminators will only accommodate standard sizes. Roll laminators on the other hand can laminate as long as the film roll can accommodate.
Once you have decided between these two types of laminators you will need to decide how big of a laminator you need. When you are looking at laminator listings you will see the width size. This refers to the size of the opening you can feed your documents through. This opening dictates the largest measurement you can have for your document’s shortest side.
Small to Medium – 1 to 9 Inches
If you never plan on laminating anything larger than a standard letter or legal size page a 9" laminator will do you just fine. Both pouch laminators and roll laminators are available in this size so you can laminate playing cards, flashcards, worksheets, and more.
Medium to Large – Up to 20 Inches
Use these laminators to laminate everything from the previous size, plus posters, visual aids, and other large projects. A big perk to getting a larger laminator is its ability to maximize efficiency. Not only can you laminate larger prints but you can also laminate long-side first for reduced laminating times or laminate multiple documents at once. This is the largest size you are likely to find pouch laminators in.
Large to Oversized – 20+ Inches
If you need to be able to laminate over 20" wide you will need a roll laminator to do it. Roll laminators come in sizes all the way up to 60" to accommodate your needs. These machines will allow you to laminate large quantities of flashcards at once as well as create large visual aids, maps, play mats, banners and more. At this point the world is your oyster and the possibilities are as far as your creativity takes you.
In Conclusion…
You should now have the building blocks to choose you’re the right laminator for your school. Enhance your learning, promote school spirit, and organize your classroom. If you are still unsure we recommend you further your learning with our laminator knowledge base and contact us so we can answer your specific questions.