FAQ

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There is no rule that applies to every bindery job. Generally, for mechanical binding like coil and wire-o, 3% or 10 books, whichever is greater. Obviously, on an order of 10 books this rule doesn't work. The rule doesn't work well for 50,000 books either. It is best to ask how many overs will be needed when you request your price estimate from TradeLam.
Lamination thickness is different from the laminate stiffness or rigidity. The thickness of the laminate is measured in mils, or 1/1000th of an inch. One mil is the same thickness as one point when measuring paper thickness.. Common laminate thicknesses include 10 mil, 5 mil, 3 mil and 1.5 mil. The thickness is measured per side, so 2-sided 10 mil lamination adds a total of 20 mils or points to the total thickness of the piece. For any thickness of laminate there can be different ratios of plastic and adhesive. Higher ratios of plastic to adhesive will be more stiff than lower ratios. Ask your TradeLam Sales Rep for more information about available ratios.
Laminate is a layer of synthetic material that encapsulates your printed project. If you are looking to protect your printing project from, dust, smoke, water, heat, sunlight, continuous use, or just about anything else, adding laminate is the answer.
We are always happy to help you determine what would be best for your project. When it comes to 2-sided lamination, we offer 1.5 mil, 3 mil, 5 mil and 10 mil. What this means is that if we laminate 5 mil, each side of the laminated sheet would receive laminate that is .005” thick resulting in a total added thickness of .01” after the sheet is laminated.
It is not required that menus have a sealed edge lamination but we encourage it because the sealed edge increases the longevity of your menu. A sealed edge protects your menus from food and liquid spills that may otherwise damage the menu. If your client doesn't want a sealed edge, consider printing on a synthetic stock and protecting the printing with a thin laminate that won't need a sealed edge. Call TradeLam to learn more.
A complete row of tabs. A bank of five tabs is the most common. For example if your binder has eight tabs that are "five bank tabs", it will have a row of five tabs followed by another row of three tabs. Bank describes how many tabs could fit on one row before starting over at the top and establishes the number of tabs visible along the edge of the page.