If your shop has a laminator, you are aware of the destructive power of dust. A perfect print can be ruined by a single hair that lands in the wrong place at the wrong time. Tons of materials and hours of labor are wasted every day because of the tiniest of airborne specks. You can either accept that there will be some contamination in almost every lamination job and try to convince your customers that the little black spot in the middle of their face won’t really be seen from 10 feet away, or you can take steps to reduce the chances of trapping debris beneath the laminated layer.

 

Look for sources of dust, such as doors that open to the outside or other rooms, and take steps to minimize the possibility of visitors bringing dust in with them.

This opening leads into the print production room, which is also kept as dust-free as possible. Even so, a rubber curtain is installed to reduce the chances of airborne particles entering the room.

Whether it is used for UV protection, abrasion resistance or to alter the surface texture, lamination is always the last step in the process. Depending on how it is handled, lamination can either enhance the quality of the image or ruin the job completely. One speck of black dust in the middle of a white space will annoy the viewer like a pebble in their shoe, and once something is trapped under the laminate, attempting to remove it usually only makes the situation worse.

 

How do you prevent the little dust demons from getting in there in the first place? It’s all about static electricity. Flashback to high school chemistry: all matter is made of atoms and molecules that are electrically neutral, with an equal number of positive charges (protons in the nucleus) and negative charges (electrons in “shells” surrounding the nucleus). When two materials are in contact, electrons can move from one material to the other, which leaves an excess of positive charge on one material, and an equal negative charge on the other. When the materials are separated, one remains negatively charged, attracting positively charged matter. So, as the laminate releases from its liner, invisible electromagnetic forces suck all of the dust within reach right down onto your beautiful, pristine digital print.

 

Start your dust busting regimen with a good, old-fashioned cleaning. Search the lamination room for horizontal surfaces that might collect dust, and wipe down every possible place that dust might be lurking. Walk around the room with a spray bottle and mist the air above your head, raising the moisture content of the air and carrying the floating particles you just stirred up down to the floor. Wipe all around the opening of the laminator with a moist, lint-free rag or static wipe (there are several brands available online, but laundry fabric softeners or dryer sheets also work well). If you have a table to support rigid materials as they feed into the laminator, wipe that down, too. Next, mop the entire floor, including the quarter inch of crud that has accumulated in the corners.

 

Here both static elimination cords are visible. We may need to add another place to contact the roll of material coming from the lower intake position to reduce the possibility of errant dust getting sucked up from the floor. The magnets make it easy to install and reposition the cord as necessary.

A close up view of the magnet holding one end of the static cord.

Now look for all of the places that dust might be introduced from outside. As long as there are other ways to exit the building without going through the laminating room, any doors or windows to the outside or other rooms should be locked or blocked while laminating is in progress. The lamination space must be protected and defended from dust, and nobody, including the person operating the laminator, should enter or exit the room until the job is done.

 

The last line of defense is at the business end of the laminator, where the material feeds in. Of course, you must make sure that printed materials are kept away from dust during handling and transportation, and wipe them with an anti-static wipe just before they enter the mouth of the laminator. In addition, there are static reducing devices that can be mounted across the mouth to attract the dust away from the lamination at the moment the electrons are getting excited. Copper is a highly conductive metal that will counteract the static charge, and is available in the form of tinsel and elastic cord that can be stretched across the mouth of the machine, contacting the printed material and the roll of laminate just before they come together.

 

The metal body of the machine is usually sufficiently grounded if it has a three-prong power cord plugged into a wall socket. Most building wiring is properly grounded to divert current away from human bodies and into the powerful pull of the earth. However, plastic, paper and vinyl are not very conductive, so the static they create does not transfer easily to the metal surfaces. Stretching a conductive cord or tinsel across the material creates a path of least resistance to direct the electrical charge to the ground where it belongs.

 

Take the time to clean thoroughly, defend your space, reduce static and ground the machine, and you may never have to try to justify a dust speck again. Happy laminating!