GBC Ultima 65 School Laminator Review

As the most popular school and church laminating machine on the market, the GBC Ultima 65 enjoys a pretty high profile. In order to help you decide if it is the right laminator for you, however, we took a closer look at this machine. Here are some of the strengths and weaknesses of this machine.

Strengths:

The chief feature of the Ultima 65 is its ability to use laminating rolls that are up to twenty seven inches wide, and as narrow as nine inches. Historically, most users have chosen a roll width of twenty five inches, as this is the most commonly available on the market. However, depending on the type of laminating project you are looking to complete, it is nice to have the option to use any one of the several different roll sizes that are available.



The Ultima 65 is capable of running laminating films that are from 1.2mil to 3 mil in thickness. Though most projects will use 1.5, it is nice here also to have the option to use 3mil film as well. Again, the most common roll size is twenty five inches by five hundred feet of 1.5mil, and as such it is the least expensive of the supplies out there. If, however you have a project that needs a little bit of a higher quality look and feel, you can step up to 3mil without any problems at all.



For a high volume machine that will likely see use by people with all different levels of experience, it is very nice that the Ultima 65 includes a reverse function to assist with any film jams that may occur.



There is a handy trimmer on the back of the machine that allows the user to cut the just -laminated document away. This is not a finalizing trimmer, however, as you will still need to use a pair of scissors to trim the materials after they have been removed from the machine.



It must be stated that the Ultima 65 does not dominate the marketplace because it is especially rich in features. The reason for its popularity is that it is a very simple machine to operate. The keypad is intuitive without a lot of bells and whistles to confuse, and the user need not adjust heat or speed in order to accommodate different materials. This is, in other words, the perfect machine for setting in which a lot of different people will be using the machine because it is a very easy machine to learn.


Weaknesses:

Though the Ultima 65 is a great machine for laminating signs, visual aids, and banners, there are a few projects that it is not cut out for. For one thing, it won't work with films thicker than 3mil. That means that if you believe that you are regularly going to want to laminate using 5 or 10mil thicknesses. You will also be limited to a core size of one inch with the Ultima 65. These are reasonable limitations for this type of laminator, however, and professional users such as print shops will probably purchase more capable machines.



The warm up time is fairly long, coming in at about fifteen to twenty minutes.



You will want to be extra careful to load this machine correctly, or you could end up with at best a huge mess, and at worst a service call. One of the most common problems that users have with this machine is that an inexperienced user will load the film onto the machine with the adhesive facing towards the rollers. What a mess...