Ledco HD-25 "Workhorse" Laminator
This industrial series laminator is an ideal laminator for hot and cold laminate jobs both sheet and roll fed.

25 inch Industrial Series "Workhorse" Laminator shown here as a table top with hot laminates loaded on top and bottom.

"The most dependable... versatile... easy to use... trouble free... and easy to maintain laminator I've ever used."

Those are the kinds of comments Ledco operators use to describe the "Workhorse" laminator.

Especially for Gerber Edge owners. A 50 yd. roll of Gerber material will laminate perfectly straight when set up properly. If you want to do a lot of slitting, stripping and rewinding of labels, take a look at the SaberSlit, which is a modified workhorse for pressure sensitive label finishing.

With a Workhorse, you can laminate one item, then mount and laminate the next item in one pass on mounting board up to 1/2 inch thick. Here's the catch: There are no pressure or gap settings to adjust.

With a top speed of 25 FPM and a sustainable laminating speed of 10 FPM with 5-mil hot laminate on both sides, the Ledco Workhorse is much faster than most machines made for wide format applications.

Pull rollers keep hot laminates from curling. Most laminators will allow the finished product to drop once it has passed through the heated rollers. This promotes curling because your material will be cooling and hardening in a curled state as it drops vertically from the nip rollers. Any industrial built Ledco laminator (Digital, Workhorse, Thoroughbred, Heavy Duty Industrial) capable of running hot laminates incorporate what are called "pull rollers."

What are "pull rollers?" Pull rollers are a second set of nip rollers that are driven a bit faster than the front nip rollers. The pull rollers pull the laminate taught, perfectly straight, and flat while the powerful fans cool the laminate before it exits the machine. Your prints will lay flat & stay flat!

Both upper and lower rollers are mechanically driven. This also prevents roll curling. Other less expensive laminators that cut corners on design may only drive the upper or lower rollers, which creates friction on one side only. This can make the material curl as it is pulled though the laminator. You get what you pay for.

Heat shoes vs. hot rollers, fact vs. myth: Aluminum teflon coated heat shoes simply heat up and cool down faster than siliconized rubber rollers. A matter of fact it takes about 10 minutes to heat or cool the heat shoes back to room temp in comparison to 1.5 -2 hours heat or cool 6" rubber rollers.

Heat shoes also supply more consistent heat across the width of the laminator than heated rubber rollers do. If you get a cool spot on the internally heated roller type laminator, it will result in your laminate not melting or adhering to your print properly. It will eventually delaminate or blister.

Another myth about heat shoes: We hear this one often. Prospects are often told by salespeople of a hot roller laminators that heat shoes will scratch your laminate. Heat shoes don't scratch laminates, careless people do. Heat shoes have a very smooth teflon coating that doesn't scratch... Unless there is a burr left on the shoe from someone carelessly cutting film on the shoe.

We also have seen careless people cut on the rollers of many laminators. The rollers eventually delaminate and fall apart. With shoes, cutting leaves scratches in the teflon coating. If the scratches leave burrs, the burrs will leave scratches. If you have careless people and you want to keep them, heat shoes cost about 20% of what hot rollers do. And you can replace them yourself.

Heat transfers need hot rollers. When using heat transfer materials that must simultaneously come in contact with the heating element and the material you are transferring to, hot rollers are the solution.

Since heat shoes only come in contact with the laminate just before it comes in contact with the printed stock, they don't work as well and sometimes don't work at all with some transfer medias.

ADDITIONAL OPTIONS:
Release liner take-up: An optional release liner take up allows the Workhorse to apply cold laminating films and wind up the scrap liner on a core.

With the addition the Finish-Line cutter from Ledco, a rugged and fully automatic laminating system can be assembled for many thousands of dollars less than other commercial auto-systems on the market.

Here are the features that contribute to making a machine people naturally call a Workhorse:

• Laminating and Pull Rollers - are covered with quality silicone rubber for superior release quality, higher lamination quality and easier cleaning.  The laminating rollers and pull rollers are interchangeable.
  
• Intelligent Heat Controllers - display both the set temperature and the actual temperature.  The microprocessor in the control quickly learns to anticipate the heat demand of each job and keeps the actual temperature within a few degrees of the set temperature.
• Removable Heat Shoes - are Teflon coated to reduce film abrasion.  They are easily unplugged and removed to clean or replace the laminating rollers.
• Built-in Retractable Slitters - save an enormous amount of cutting time by trimming away side scrap during the lamination process.   The two heads can be adjusted independently with great precision.
• Dual Tension Knobs - (clutches) for each supply roll mandrel are easy to use and provide as little or as much tension as needed to keep work wrinkle-free.
• Forced Air Cooling - is essential when running thicker films, because the lamination needs to be cooled to get good results.
• Easy Access Controls - are conveniently located and grouped for effective operation.
• A Safety Guard - is built into the feed tray to help insure it will always be in place when laminating.
• Both upper and Lower Rollers Are Driven - to minimize the wrinkling or curling that can occur when only one roller is driven
• Standard Precision Feed Tray - has both left and right side guides and can be replaced with the power feed tray in seconds.
• Made In U.S.A. - All Machines are Made  in The U.S.A.

Optional Equipment...

• Risers and Extensions - Risers raise machine off work surface, allowing longer supply roll brackets (extensions) to handle larger diameter rolls of film. Extended Supply Roll Brackets - Allow for larger supply roll diameters. 
• Used without risers when a machine is on a stand. Stand is built of heavy duty tubular steel.   Designed to place unit at optimum feeding height, and to provide a secure base.
• Upper Fan Assembly - When running thicker films additional cooling capacity permits work to be run at a higher speed.
• Scrap Rewind - Removes liner material from pressure sensitive and dry resist films.
• Footage Counter - For accurate measurement of film usage.
• Additional Slitter Heads - For multiple-up work.