What is the Difference Between Hot and Cold Laminating?

Depending on your particular requirements and budget, you may want to use hot or cold lamination to laminate materials. Items that are subject to cold lamination are placed under pressure, while hot laminating may damage certain items due to applied heat. Each technique, however, uses a film to laminate the material, and the strength of the lamination and its durability depend on the thickness of the film used. Lamination also provides wipe-clean surfaces for your materials, making them easy to frequently disinfect.

The company is the world’s best Cold Laminating Film Manufacturer supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.

At VariQuest, we offer an energy-efficient, easy-to-use cold lamination machine, the Cold Laminator , to help you preserve and protect banners, posters, and bulletin board cutouts for repeated yearly use.

Hot Lamination

The process of hot lamination utilizes a heat-activated adhesive that is heated up as it travels through the laminator. A huge disadvantage of hot lamination is that some items cannot be subjected to the heat that occurs in this process &#; photographs are one example. Paper with ink from an inkjet printer is also not suitable for hot lamination since the ink on the paper may melt during the process. Hot lamination also takes more time to complete than cold lamination since the machine needs to heat up before the process begins.

Cold Lamination

With a cold lamination machine, a pressure-sensitive adhesive is used that does not require heating. This type of laminator utilizes rollers that compress sheets of lamination together. These laminators are easier and faster to use than hot lamination machines. They can be used safely for the lamination of virtually all flat items.

Cold laminating can be used for all types of documents, the process takes just a few minutes to complete and it does not take a highly trained professional to use our Cold Laminator . These are safe machines that require little maintenance, helping save on long-term cost.

The choice of whether to use hot or cold lamination may be based on several considerations, including who the users of the machine will be, the end of products required from the machine, and the available budget &#; but the VariQuest Cold Laminator is your best bet for ease-of use, safety, and versatility. Read more about the benefits of cold lamination here.

To learn about the various tools we offer &#; including our cold lamination machine, the Cold Laminator &#; for the creation of visual aids and teaching templates in the classroom, request a no-obligation demonstration with one of our expert education consultants, or give us a call at 800.328. or us at

Most of us have experience with "hot" lamination. You plug these machines in, wait for them to warm up, smell the hot plastic (which is a good indicator it's "ready"), then run your papers through to preserve projects, posters, reusable handouts, etc. And while this does typically work for the finished product you need, there is a better way - and we'll tell you why. 

Cold Lamination.

Requiring no electricity, powered by a hand-crank and lasting longer than their hot counterparts, here's why you should consider a cold laminator - the lesser-known, more efficient alternative...

For more information, please visit professional graphic printing film manufacturer.

• No electricity needed. Place a cold laminator anywhere - on a mobile cart, on a work room table, or in the middle of a room - you never need to plug it in, so you aren't restricted by wall outlets!
• No wait time. Hot lamination requires a "warm-up" period every time you want to use it. Cold Laminators are ready to go whenever, wherever you are. Just load the roll of laminate once and you're set for hundreds of uses!
• No mess, no fumes. Remember that plastic-y smell we mentioned? I'm sure you know it well. There are no toxic fumes with cold lamination because there's no heating required. Keep your work environment safe, pleasant for the nose, and always cool to the touch!
• No jams or mis-feeds. Because you're hand-cranking the document through the cold laminator, the tool will not error-out and render a machine almost-useless like can sometimes happen with automatic-feed hot lamination. And when constant break-downs are non-existent, your cold laminator will last a long, long time.
• No experience required. With a bit of a learning curve when you're using hot lamination, the cold laminator is a matter of lining up your piece within the guides, pushing it up against the laminate, and turning a hand-crank until your project is sealed top-to-bottom!
• No maintenance. You don't have to clean blades, spools, change hot tip supplies, or troubleshoot. This machine is built strong to last long!
• Laminate first, cut after - the edges are sealed! With hot lamination, you need to leave a ridge of film around the outside of your project to keep it intact. With cold lamination, you can cut right through the paper and still maintain a sealed finished product!

And did we mention extremely durable output? Check out this video of one of our VariQuest posters, preserved using the VariQuest Cold Laminator , despite being pounded with rain water from a gutter spout! 

You don't have to go 12 boxing rounds to declare a winner when it comes to cold vs. hot lamination - the decision is unanimous. 

For more information on the VariQuest Cold Laminator , visit our website or request a price quote from one of our dedicated Education Consultants today!

Are you interested in learning more about cold laminating film? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!