Laminating pouches protect and strengthen documents. Laminators are size specific and require pouches of equal or lesser capacity. Pouch thickness is measured in mils, with 3-10 mils being common. Some pouches have holograms or magnetic strips for authentication.
Laminating pouches allow the consumer to secure a document within a layer of plastic material by lamination process. It’s quite common for people to laminate things like luggage tags, work ID cards, personal ID cards, library cards, and other important documents. Lamination helps preserve the document and strengthen its ductility. The process requires three things: the laminator, the laminating pouch and the document to be laminated.
Laminators are size specific. In other words, most laminators require you to use only laminating pouches that are equal to or less than the machine’s maximum capacity. Also, laminating pouches are rated by their thickness. Thickness measurements for laminating pouches are measured in one “mil” increments. Mil thicknesses commonly sold to the public are between three (thin) and ten mils (thick). As a system of reference, a mil is one-thousandth of an inch, or .001 inch (.025 cm); glossy photo paper, for example, is usually 10 mils thick. Of course there are thicker laminating pouches but they are more often used in industrial applications.
It’s important to make sure your laminator can accommodate both the thickness and size of laminating pouch you intend to use. Please note that you can trim excess material from the laminating pouch before or after the laminating process.
Many of the work ID cards and driver’s licenses you may have seen are often laminated in laminating envelopes. These pouches may contain embedded holograms to ensure authenticity, while others may include a magnetic stripe on the back of the card. Both of these enhancements provide diversity in envelopes and allow employers to create and verify certified copies of their employee IDs. The US State Department uses these measures to distinguish real licenses from counterfeits. While magnetic strips can be scanned for information and authentication, holograms are a clear visual sign that a document is real and original. There is virtually no limit to the combination of holograms and magnetic strips that can be incorporated into a laminating pouch.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
