EXL 45-2 EXL 95-2 EXL 125-2 80 mic 3 mil 100 mic 4 mil 125 mic 5 mil 70-100 gr 20-28 lbs 110-160 gr 30-42 lbs 170-300 gr 44-80 lbs Dear Customer, Thank you for buying a Fellowes laminator. This product represents a new generation of laminators, products that are not only good-looking, but also smarter and more hardworking. This means more laminating options, faster processing, greater ease of use, and more professional results. We know of no laminators on the market today that offer you more value for your money in this product category. To ensure that your laminator enjoys a long, productive life, I hope you take the time to read the few pages of this manual. If you have any questions or wish to comment on this product, we welcome your call, email or letter. Sincerely, James Fellowes Chairman & CEO Contents Product Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Important Safety Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Set-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Customer Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Limited Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 2 Product Profile Our new generation of @Home laminators enables you to enjoy many of the advantages of large office laminators, while paying only for the capacity you need. All models are fully photo-capable, for example, meaning that you can laminate not only professionally processed pictures, but digital photos you print yourself as well. You can also laminate materials other than paper, such as flat, dry decorations, making this machine a fun addition to the handicrafts corner at home or at school. At the same time, we have built in more capacity, speed and user-friendliness: Overview Capacity ­Pouch width: Max. centimeters (document) inches ­Pouch thickness: Min.-Max. microns mils ­Paper thickness: Max. gr lbs sheet equivalent* ­Combined thickness: Max. millimeters inches sheet equivalent* Speed in minutes to: ­Warm-up to low heat ­Warm-up to high heat ­Process one sheet** Temperature Options Automatic Switch-o f f Audible Ready Signal * Standard office paper (20 lb/ 75g) ** A4/letter-size EXL 45-2 EXL 95-2 EXL 125-2 12 (A6) 4.7 80-125 3-5 300 80 3-4 0.63 0.02 6-7 5 6 <1 1 cold, 2 hot 24 (A4) 9 80-125 3-5 300 80 3-4 0.63 0.02 6-7 5 6 <1 1 cold, 2 hot 33 (A3) 12 80-125 3-5 300 80 3-4 0.63 0.02 6-7 5 6 <1 1 cold, 2 hot For best results, always try to stay within the above capacity limits. When laminating paper of standard size and weight, just follow the selection guide stored under your machine; when laminating non-standard paper or materials other than paper, use the combined thickness of the pouch and its contents as your guide. If the filled pouch exceeds this thickness, it may reduce the quality of your work and, in extreme cases, damage your machine. 3 IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE USING Treat your @Home laminator as you would any other piece of electrical equipment: · Keep it away from heat or water sources · Plug it in near an easily accessible outlet · Do not use if it is damaged in any way · Do not attempt to open or otherwise repair it · Turn it off after each use, and · Unplug it when not in use for an extended period. Set-up The only assembly required for an @Home laminator is attaching the wire support rack, which ensures that the sheets coming out of the machine cool in a flat position and do not curl. Using the illustration on the inside of the manual cover as a reference, push the ends of the rack into the holes in the back of the machine as far as they will go. Operation Your laminator works by means of two rollers, one on top of the other, each turning in the opposite direction to draw a plastic, open-sided pouch coated with adhesives through them and out of the machine. Understanding this simple mechanism will help you decide what materials you can laminate without risk of damage to your machine. You can feel confident laminating all materials that are flat and dry, for example, but should avoid those that: · Contain liquids, gels, or even moisture, that could escape · May crumble or otherwise disperse under pressure, or · Are likely to break, as could glass or rigid metals and plastics. With hot lamination, where the rollers are also heated, make sure you don't put anything into the pouch that could melt and leak into the machine. Once you have checked the suitability of your contents, you need to decide whether to use cold or hot lamination. Cold lamination, also called self-adhesive lamination, bonds materials between an adhesive and a non-adhesive sheet solely by means of pressure. As a result, this method tends not to produce as tight a seal against water and the elements as hot lamination, but can be useful for heat-sensitive materials, such as thermal paper or fragile documents. While the cold method used to be the only good way to laminate photographs, today's heated-roller technology enables you to achieve excellent results and is therefore probably the better choice. 4 The contents and the mode decided, the next step is to choose the right pouch for the job. Hot and cold laminating pouches are especially designed for their separate purposes and cannot be substituted for one another. When it comes to pouch size and thickness, you should make sure that the one you buy is no wider than the entry of your model and not thicker, together with the contents, than the capacity of your machine. If you are laminating paper of a standard size and weight, you can quickly see your pouch thickness options on the selection guide stored under the machine: · White and gray boxes indicate that the pouch/paper combination can be used · No box on the table indicates that there is no combination possible with your machine. If you find several pouch options for your document, take the one that best suits the purpose: The thicker the pouch, the more rigid and resistant the laminated sheet will be. If you are not sure of the paper's weight or are laminating other materials, the combined thickness of the pouch and contents should be your guide. The maximum in this case is the equivalent of a stack of 6 to 7 sheets of standard office paper. (See Product Profile for details on capacity limits.) If even the smallest size pouch will leave a lot of space around your contents or you want the lamination to conform to the shape of your contents, wait to cut it to size until after lamination: a laminating pouch is precision-cut to ensure minimal leakage of adhesives, and this cannot be replicated with scissors or a paper-cutter. You'll also find the pouch easier to cut when it is hardened. How you arrange your contents in the selected pouch is important in both cold and hot modes. To produce professional-looking results and ensure a long working life for your machine, follow these simple guidelines (see illustration on the inside of the manual cover) : 1. Lay contents as close as possible to the sealed edge of the pouch, which is the end you will be feeding into the machine. If the material is more than 1 cm or 1/2 inch from this edge, the rollers will not have enough traction to draw in the pouch and will turn continuously without advancing it. 2. Arrange multiple items close to each other in the pouch, with the edges no farther than 1 cm or 1/2 inch apart. If there is a larger gap between items, the rollers will slip into it and lose their traction. As above, the rollers will turn without advancing the pouch. 3. Leave a free margin around contents of at least 3 mm, or 1/8 inch, on the three unsealed sides of the pouch to guarantee a strong seal. This is a minimum, meaning you can have as much margin beyond this as you wish. To begin laminating, place your machine on a work surface where you have enough room at the back to allow the full length of the pouch to clear the material exit . Plug in the machine and press the power button , which will start the rollers turning. If you plan to do laminate both cold and hot in one session, it makes sense to start with cold, so you don't have to wait for the machine to cool down. (This can take one to two hours.) In either case, to save energy and reduce wear-and-tear on your machine, turn off the machine as soon as you are finished by pressing the power button . If you forget, however, the machine has an automatic switch-off function, which causes it to turn itself off one hour after not being used. 5 Cold Lamination With the contents and the pouch you have selected at hand: . The machine will indicate its readiness by turning on the green standby light and giving an audible signal. If the machine is at room temperature, this will be almost immediate. 2. Place contents in pouch in line with the guidelines (p. 5). Lay the pouch on a flat surface and open it so that the adhesive side, which is covered by a glossy protective sheet, is vertical. Place the contents face up onto the transparent, non-adhesive side, but do not close the pouch. 3. Insert sealed edge of the open pouch into the entry, as shown, bending the protective sheet backwards over the machine and grasping its free edge. As the machine draws in the pouch, keep holding on to the protector, which will be peeled away from the adhesive side as the pouch moves through. Although it is easier to take off the protector and close the pouch before you feed it in, you will create air bubbles and other irregularities that the machine will not be able to even out. The finished sheet will emerge from the material exit port rack only after it has completely cleared the exit. by itself. Remove it from the sup1. Turn temperature selector to Hot lamination With the contents and the pouch you have selected at hand: 1. Turn temperature selector to or . The boxes in the selection guide you used to choose the pouch size and thickness also indicate what temperature setting you should use with your pouch: · If the box is white, use , · If the box is gray, use . If you are not sure of the weight or thickness of the contents or pouch, you will avoid possible damage if you start with the lower temperature. With the lower setting, the machine will take 5 minutes to warm up and with the higher, one minute longer. When the laminator has reached the setting you chose, it will indicate its readiness with a green standby light and an audible signal. 2. Place contents in pouch in line with the guidelines (p. 5). Unlike with cold laminating, the contents can be face down or up within the pouch. Close the pouch once the contents are arranged. 3. Insert sealed edge of the closed pouch into the entry , as shown, and release it as soon as the machine begins to drawn it in, as shown in the illustration. The finished sheet will emerge from the material exit by itself. Remove it from the support rack only after it has completely cleared the exit. 6 Maintenance To keep your laminator free of adhesives that could hurt the quality of your work, you should clean the rollers from time to time, or frequently, depending on how often you use the machine. The best way is to do this right after you have finished hot laminating, because the rollers will still be hot, which is necessary for the cleaning process. To clean the rollers: · · · · · Turn selector to if it is not already on this setting Wait for the readiness light and signal Insert the cleaning sheet included in the package, repeating one or two times Insert a plain white sheet of paper to test for remaining traces, and Reinsert the cleaning sheet, if necessary, and retest. To clean the exterior of your machine, just wipe with a soft cloth dampened with plain water. Troubleshooting If you are not getting the results you should be, you can probably solve the problem quickly. If, for example, your end product is: · Cloudy - The temperature is too low or the pouch/contents combination too thick. Try passing it through the machine one or more times, or raising the temperature if you can. Otherwise, choose a thinner pouch or reduce the weight or thickness of the contents. · Curled - The support rack is not in place. Install it as described under Set- u p. · Wavy - The temperature is too high. Turn the machine to the lower setting if you can. Passing through the cleaning sheet will also help cool down the rollers. · Spotted - Th ...