• With digital and inkjet printers becoming more common in homes and businesses there has been a renewed interest in printing and laminating professional quality photographs and printed pages.
• The photosmart 13 laminator which is also known as the Photopro 13 laminator is designed specifically for photo quality lamination of printed photographs and printed pictures.
• It is the ideal choice for use with photo sized laminating pouches but is also a good choice for laminating documents for business.

Features:

• The four roller heating system along with heated plates help to ensure that items laminated with the Lamitek Photosmart 13 are free from air bubbles, cloudiness or imperfections in the laminated output.
• Simple to operate controls allow you to quickly and easily adjust the laminator to the correct temperature for the thickness of laminating pouches that you are using. The Photopro 13 laminator is capable of using laminating pouches as thin as 3mil and as thick as 10mil per side.
• Can be adjusted hot enough to use with toner compatible foils for foil laminating. This involves using a special type of foil that adheres to toner output from your laser printer or photocopier.
• The 13" throat on the Photosmart 13 allows you to use even the largest size of laminating pouches such as the 12" x 18" large menu sized pouches.
• This laminator has Teflon coated heat plates that are designed to prevent glue from accumulating inside of laminator and causing pouch jams and wrapped laminating pouches.

Limitations:

• One customer of mine had difficulties with this laminator running the largest sized laminating pouches with heavy stocks. The weight of these pouches caused problems with skewing as the materials were being pulled through the laminator. This is something that you should be aware of if you plan on running menu sized or double menu pouches with heavy card stock items.
• The laminator is simple to operate because it uses only one dial to adjust the temperature setting of the laminator. However, higher quality laminators will have adjustments for both heat and speed. The additional speed adjustment helps users to find the perfect settings for thick materials and to improve productivity by increasing the speed of the laminator.
• The photopro 13 laminator runs at approximately 18 inches per minute. For most users this speed should be adequate. However, higher volume users may want to consider a laminator with a faster motor and adjustable speed settings.

Construction:

• The laminator is housed in a contemporary and fashionable plastic shell. The shell seems durable and the laminator is simple enough that there is very little that should go wrong with it.
• The photopro 13 comes with a 1 year manufacturers warranty from lamitek. During this time the laminator will be repaired or replaced by lamitek. However, after 1 year if there were a problem with this laminator it will most likely need to be replaced.

Recommendation:

• With a cost of around $200 the Photosmart 13 laminator from Lamitek offers a great set of features for a great price. It is an ideal machine for a small office, for home use or for laminating photographs.
• For higher volume users I would suggest going with a heavier duty laminator from a manufacturer such as GBC who is more proven in the marketplace. However, you can expect to pay quite a bit more for a machine with similar features from GBC or another more seasoned manufacturer