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Article #393: Gbc Ultima 35 Ezload 12" Roll Laminator Product Review

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For years, roll laminators have been used from the machine.
in schools, churches, print shops and Limitations:
larger organizations to laminate all At this point, you might be wondering
sorts of different materials. However, "what's the catch"? Well, every great
the size and cost of these machines kept machine has a few drawbacks. One
most smaller users from purchasing a roll potential drawback of the Ultima35 is
laminator. Most individuals simply that the supplies for it are proprietary.
didn't want to spend thousands of dollars This means that you will need to
on a laminator or didn't have a place to purchase the special laminating rolls
keep a machine that weighed over 100 that are designed specifically for this
pounds and was almost three feet wide. machine. These supplies are slightly
With this in mind, GBC (General Binding more expensive than standard laminating
Corporation) released a new 12" wide roll roll film. However, the machine is
laminator that was designed to address considerably less expensive and this is a
some of these problems. I took this new reasonable tradeoff for such an
GBC Ultima 35 EZload roll laminator for a inexpensive feature rich laminator.
test drive and here is what I discovered. The Ultima-35 is limited to 12" wide
Features: rolls. This means that you can laminate
After you get Ultima35 out of the box, anything up to twelve inches wide.
get it all set up and turn it on the However, it will not be able to handle
first thing that you will notice is that posters or other large format documents.
it is very quick to warm up. In fact, it If you are going to need to laminate
only took between 1-2 minutes for it to these types of materials you will need to
warm up. Compared to most roll look for a larger machine. The Ultim35
laminators (and a lot of pouch Ezload is also not capable of using
laminators) this is extremely fast. specialty laminating films and won't do
This makes it possible to increase mounting. These are not common
productivity by decreasing the time that applications but I thought that I should
it takes to laminate your first document. point it out just in case you are looking
One of the main reasons that GBC for a machine that can do these things.
developed the Ultima 35 was to address The final limitation that noted with the
issues with users loading their Ultima35 is that even though it is
laminating film backwards on their impossible to load the film backwards, it
machines. Every year, the single most isn't really any easier to load than a
common reason for service calls on traditional laminator. You still have to
laminators is that users load the film carefully thread the film through the
with the adhesive side facing the rollers correct path in order to get it threaded
and end up with a huge mess. The onto the machine. This can be a little
Ultima35 eliminates this problem by using bit tricky and it might take you a few
special laminating film that has keyed times before you master it.
rollers. One side of the film comes with Construction:
a light blue adaptor on it and the other The Ultima35 appears to be built well and
side comes with a dark blue adaptor. The should hold up over time. The sides of
two sides are different sizes; this means the machine are plastic and the feed tray
that it is impossible to load the film is metal. The gears inside are metal.
into the machine the wrong way. You might want to be careful with the
The Ultima 35 is actually a fairly trimming device on the back of the
versatile machine. It accepts roll film machine, it might get broken if you
that is 1.7mil, 3mil and 5mil thick. The aren't careful. The only other thing
specifications from GBC state that it can that I noticed on the machine that I was
also handle 10mil film. However, 10mil looking at was that it was a little bit
film is not currently available and there loud when I had it on. There is a fan
is no expected date for its release at near the back of the machine that helps
the time of this review. In addition to to cool the unit. This fan sounds a
regular gloss films, GBC also released little bit like a loud computer fan. It
some matte films for the Ultima35. These is more of an annoyance but it is worth
are new offerings for the 2008 calendar noting.
year. I wouldn't be doing you justice if I
In working with the Ultima35, there were didn't mention the fact that you should
several other features that I noticed be careful about what you feed through
that are worth pointing out. It has an your laminator. You shouldn't try to
adjustable speed dial that will allow you laminate things that will melt, plastics,
to adjust for different materials that sharp objects, glitter or materials with
you are laminating and for thicker films. glitter on them or 3D objects. All of
It also has a forward and reverse these things can quickly ruin your
feature that can be used to help with the laminator and it will not be covered
removal of film wraps or jams. Finally, under the warranty if you do attempt
it has a built in trimmer to assist in these things.
cutting the finished laminated materials






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