subject: Lamitek Photosmart 13 Laminator Review [print this page] The emergence and increasing numbers if digital printers has sparked an interest in laminating machines that can work with high-quality photos and/or glossier printed pages. The Lamitek Photosmart 13 is a laminating machine that is designed to meet this demand. In the following review, we delve into this machine, and give you a list of what we consider to be some if its strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths:
1.) We liked that everything that we put through the Photosmart 13 came out free of air bubbles or cloudiness. Lamitek claims that this is due to the Photosmart 13's heating system that uses four rollers and heated plates. We have to say that the finished product was rather impressive almost every time.
2.) The controls for the Photosmart 13 are very simple and intuitive. We were able to adjust the temperature with ease to match the thickness of the pouch we were using, a pretty useful feature that not every laminator in this price range offers.
3.) Also fairly unique for this price point, the Photosmart 13 gives the user the option of doing his or her laminating project in thicknesses from 3 to 10mil. It seems to us that a lot of machines top out at 5mil, so this is a great feature that adds a lot of versatility to this machine.
4.) You can adjust the Photosmart 13 to work at a temperature that is hot enough to use with foil laminating. You will, of course have to use a special foil designed to adhere to toner output for photocopier or a laser printer.
5.) The feed opening of thirteen inches is a great feature, enabling the user to use the largest laminating pouches on the market including the twelve by eighteen inch large menu size.
6.) The heated plates of the Photosmart 13 are Teflon coated, meaning that adhesive will not collect on them. Over time this feature should lead to fewer paper jams and - even worse - wrapped pouches.
Weaknesses:
1.) Though the Photosmart 13 is designed to process large menu pouches, we had a little bit of difficulty trying to laminate the larger pouches with some of the heavier paper stocks. Somehow, the weight was causing the materials to go through the machine slightly crooked. Depending on how you intend to use the Photosmart 13, this may or may not end up being a problem for you. It is just something you should be aware of before you purchase this machine.
2.) The inclusion of a temperature setting is a nice touch, but there are a lot of other laminators out there that also have settings for speed (thought it must be noted that, for the most part, these machines are more expensive). The speed setting would allow the user to adjust for different materials, and to increase productivity in most cases. The Photosmart 13 is still a great machine, but we do miss this feature.
3.) The Photosmart 13 has a speed of eighteen inches per minute. This should be an adequate speed for most uses, but for huge projects or high volume use, you might want to find a faster machine.
by: Jeffrey McRitchie
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