Foam board: benefits vs. drawbacks of speed mount heat activated and using dry mount tissue

[akthoma]

I'm not a framer, but I can't find any other forums where people discuss speed mount heat activated foam board, so hopefully it's OK for me to post here.

I need to mount 48 x 36 glossy poster paper to foam board and then laminate them. I get a large influx of these posters at one time, and I'm wondering if using speed mount heat activated foam board would cut down on the time, since currently I use dry mount tissue. I have to put the boards in the dry mount press for 6 minutes and then run it through the laminator which is probably around another 2 minutes.

How long does speed mount heat activated usually take in the press? And do I have to worry about any exposed foam board sticking to the release board?

I'd be looking at BainBridge since that's currently the type of regular foam board we use.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[alacrity8]

According to the makers of Speedmount:
Makes dry mounting faster than ever, to get through multiple jobs faster, an asset to production framers. SpeedMount works in just seconds and bonds at temperatures as low as 150º.

I've found SpeedMount to be less reliable than a dry mount tissue.

If you are using a Vacuum Press, your main time concern is getting the Vacuum to full pressure. Speeedmount will likely not save you much time.
If you are using a Clamshell style press, the adhesive will be your main time concern. In this case SpeedMount may be quicker.
If you are using a Roller Press, then I do not have any input. I'd like to see one of these in action.

 

[MnSue]

Glossy and laminate...are you experienced in this?
generally roller presses are best for lamination
dark colors on posters may have issues when laminated (at least they always were difficult in my vacupress when I did offer lamination...)

 

[akthoma]

According to the makers of Speedmount:
Makes dry mounting faster than ever, to get through multiple jobs faster, an asset to production framers. SpeedMount works in just seconds and bonds at temperatures as low as 150º.

I've found SpeedMount to be less reliable than a dry mount tissue.

If you are using a Vacuum Press, your main time concern is getting the Vacuum to full pressure. Speeedmount will likely not save you much time.
If you are using a Clamshell style press, the adhesive will be your main time concern. In this case SpeedMount may be quicker.
If you are using a Roller Press, then I do not have any input. I'd like to see one of these in action.

Thank you, your explanation is incredibly helpful.

We have a vacuum press, so, it wouldn't save time much time there. Probably the biggest time saver would be not having to deal with cutting and prepping the dry mount tissue, but I don't like you mentioned the SpeedMount is less reliable, so I'm not sure if I'm convinced it's worth trying.

 

[akthoma]

Glossy and laminate...are you experienced in this?
generally roller presses are best for lamination
dark colors on posters may have issues when laminated (at least they always were difficult in my vacupress when I did offer lamination...)

Sorry I wasn't clear. I first mount the piece in the vacuum press, and then send it through our roll laminator. I actually wasn't even aware you can laminate in a dry mount press, actually!

It's just a time intensive process to get the piece prepped, time in the press, run through the laminator and trimmed. We get a large influx of posters in a short amount of time, so I was thinking of ways I may be able to cut down on some production time.

 

[Ylva]

I don't know what sort of roller laminator you have and I only used mine for 2 months way back when.
But I applied the adhesive onto foam board with the roller laminator. I never got to the laminating part.

 

[wpfay]

Check out Gilman Paper's MountCor as opposed to Bainbridge's Speedmount. You might need to check out the heat tolerances on any substrate since laminating is considerably hotter than dry mounting.

I would also consider the availability of Bainbridge products in the relatively near future since Crescent took them over and there is a lot of redundancy within the various product lines.

 

[akthoma]

Check out Gilman Paper's MountCor as opposed to Bainbridge's Speedmount. You might need to check out the heat tolerances on any substrate since laminating is considerably hotter than dry mounting.

I would also consider the availability of Bainbridge products in the relatively near future since Crescent took them over and there is a lot of redundancy within the various product lines.

Good point on the heat tolerances. I do need to laminate around 85 degrees higher than in the dry mount press, and I didn't even consider how that might affect the board going though the laminator. It seems like all the speed mounted boards have a much lower temperature used to mount. I'm not sure if that correlates to the heat tolerance (low bonding temperature means lower heat tolerance?)

I'm thinking now with all of these considerations that I should likely stick with what I've been doing and just deal with the extra time, sigh...

Oh, I didn't know that about Bainbridge being bought out. I've stuck with one vendor, and they only offer Bainbridge, which is why I was wondering about that particular product.

Thanks! This forum has been incredibly helpful.

 

[monkframe]

I use Cool Tack, made by one of my vendors in Elkhart, IN. I don't know if it would be faster for you, but my experience with it has been good for the most part. The thing I love about it is the ability to mount photographs at a lower temperature and time (155 fahrenheit, 30 seconds) The surface emulsion isn't disturbed or altered, which was often a problem with higher temp dry mount tissue. (185 fahrenheit+, 3 minutes)
I've also laminated after mounting posters on it with no problem.

 

[MnSue]

Sorry I wasn't clear. I first mount the piece in the vacuum press, and then send it through our roll laminator. I actually wasn't even aware you can laminate in a dry mount press, actually!

It's just a time intensive process to get the piece prepped, time in the press, run through the laminator and trimmed. We get a large influx of posters in a short amount of time, so I was thinking of ways I may be able to cut down on some production time.

lamination in a press takes a high temp 185 or more...not sure if it would work for your photos.
and yes you can do both at the same time...test-test-test