Understanding where you will be using the laminator is essentail. If it's for desktop use in a home office or small workplace, you’ll be looking for something durable, not too big and easy to store such as the Fusion 1000L A4 Laminator.

Or perhaps you need a laminator for general office use, and it will be located in a large shared workspace with multiple users for day-to-day laminating. If so, you may need to consider a heavy duty A3 pouch laminator such as the Fusion 6000L, or an automatic laminator such as the Foton 30 would best suit your requirements.

Considering the amount of users will help to determine the type of laminator that you need.

An A4 pouch laminator is ideal to keep at your desk or at reception for ad hoc use, while an A3 automatic laminator or A3 pouch laminator is best suited in a shared work space for frequent use and access for multiple users.

Another key factor when choosing a laminator is to understand how frequently it will be used; to ensure that it's designed to cope with your requirements.

Moderate Use - Ad-hoc requirements a few times a month for a single user: A4 pouch laminating machines are designed primarily for infrequent or low volume laminating requirements.

Regular Use - Several times a week for 1 to 3 users: pouch laminating machines up to A3 size are perfect for most small to medium sized offices.

Heavy Use - used regularly throughout the day for 3+ users: heavy duty laminating machines, such as the GBC Foton 30 automatic laminator, cater for larger organisations that require an efficient solution for higher volumes.

Laminating machines vary in the different sizes and thicknesses of document that they can laminate, so it’s important to get the right one.

An A3 laminator will probably cover most people’s requirements as they can also laminate anything smaller than A3 as well. If you are only laminating smaller items such as A5 sheets, A4 office signs or ID cards, then an A4 compact pouch laminator will meet your requirements. 

If you need to laminate items that are A2 size and above, then a heavy duty roll laminator would be more suitable.

Consider what additional features are important to you and would help you to achieve the best results from your laminating projects.

Considerations for key features when purchasing a quality laminator:

• The laminating accessories required such as pouches or roll film

• The speed of a laminating machine and warm-up times

• Is an automated or manual design more suitable

• Sheet capacity required

• Energy efficiency (auto shutoff/sleep mode)

• The number of rollers; generally the higher the number of rollers that the machine has, the better the quality of lamination