As a fairly unique laminating machine on the market, the Fujipla ALM 3220 offers the user almost unheard of functions such as automatic feeding and trimming capabilities. In the following review we will dive in for a closer look at the ALM 3220, and will list for you what we believe are its strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths:
1. With capacities that were virtually unheard of just a few years ago, it seems that the ALM 3220 is positioning itself as the next generation in laminating machines. This is a machine that is incredibly easy to use, versatile, and accurate. To use it, all you have to do is to load the feeder with the prints you intend to laminate and press start. Depending on the type of project you are working on, in many cases you can simply set the machine to run and walk away to do other work. The ALM 3220 pretty much eliminates most manual labor from the process.
2. We like that the ALM 3220 features a warm up time of less than five minutes. That is pretty good for a machine with this kind of capacity. It also makes it a great fit for an on demand print environment.
3. We found that loading film into the ALM 3220 was very easy with the color coded cartridges.
4. The ALM 3220 uses SAP film that will adhere to any type of print, is anti static, and is available in 1.5, three, and five mil gloss and matte finishes, as well as a 1.7 mil nylon film for single sided use and applications.
5. The ALM 3220 is a machine that is designed for fast setup. There are preset widths for the trimming mechanism, and we really appreciated the digital touch screen that allows the user to set the temperature, speed, and even the margin control with ease.
Weaknesses:
1. For all its features, the ALM 3220 can only laminate documents with a maximum width of 12.6 inches. In a perfect world, such a feature rich machine would be able to process larger documents, but we ll take what we can get.
2. The trimmer widths are preset and non adjustable. The margins are fixed, thus there can be no fine tuning during the process. The length however is automatic and it can be adjusted.
3. With a maximum speed of four feet per minute, you could make the case that the ALM 3220 is a little on the slow side. It is important to remember, however, that at the end of the process, your documents will be both laminated and trimmed. There is virtually no other labor involved. That is pretty remarkable.
4. Though the ALM 3220 will likely require very little maintenance, it is recommended that, if at all possible, a local dealer be called in to help you install the machine and to give you a training session. If maintenance is required, you will also need to make sure that there is a local service tech available that has been trained to service this particular unit (it isn t exactly like any other type of laminator).
5. The ALM 3220 is not an inexpensive machine. In fact, with a price tag of around eighteen thousand dollars many organizations have a hard time justifying the cost of this machine. However, busy in plant print facilities, school districts and print shops may find that the labor savings offered by this machine make it possible to justify the capital expense that it represents.
Author Resource:
Jeff McRitchie is the designer and Director of Marketing for http://www.mybinding.com .He has written over 500 articles on binding machines,binding covers,binders,laminators,binding supplies,laminating supplies,paper handling equipments,index tabs, and shredders.
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