--- In
Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Derryck Croker <derryck@...> wrote:
>
> On 7 Feb 2006, at 20:03, Codesuidae wrote:
>
> > Did you try your switch to increase the temperature of the laminator?
>
> Laminator may be protected by a thermal fuse, which will open if its
> max. temp. capability is breached.
>
> --
>
> Cheers
>
> Derryck
He was referring to the momentary toggle switch I'd mentioned that I'd
installed on my wimpy (heat-wise) Royal PL2100 laminator to
intermittently bypass the thermostat for very short intervals. Once
the laminator was heated up to operating temperature, I found that the
thermostat turned on the heaters with an approximate 30% duty cycle.
I intended to activate my switch just prior to inserting a PCB and
hold it on during its short pass through the machine just to make
certain that the rollers were at their maximum temp. This would not
have been higher than the 390F temperature (very close to the 392F
documented fusing point of toner) I measured on the laser printer
fuser heating elements used in the laminator. I believe that the
orange silicon rubber rollers were also probably designed for use in
laser printer fusers.
However, I discouraged anyone else from doing this sort of thing.
And, in the end, it turned out to be totally unecessary. I found that
the simple fix for anyone stuck with a thermal laminator that was too
low-temp to reliably fuse toner to PCBs was to tack the artwork to the
board with a pass or two through the laminator, put the board into a
pre-heated 390F oven for a few minutes and then run the board through
the laminator again. This gave absolutely perfect results with no
potentially risky laminator modifications needed.
Bill