Sheet Protectors are much cheaper than lamination and some are self-sealing.
Special lamination of rare or art work should be done by a professional.
Laminating paper, such as photographs, can prevent it from becoming creased, sun damaged, wrinkled, stained, smudged, abraded and/or marked by grease, fingerprints and environmental concerns. Photo identification cards and credit cards are almost always laminated with plastic film. Boxes and other containers are also laminated using a UV coating.
A pouch laminator uses a lamination pouch that is usually sealed on one side.
A heated roll laminator uses heated rollers to melt glue extruded onto lamination film. This film is in turn applied to a substrate such as paper or card using pressure rollers. The primary purpose of laminating with such a machine is to embellish or protect printed documents or images.
Cold Roll Laminators use a plastic film which is coated with an adhesive and glossy backing which does not adhere to the glue. When the glossy backing is removed, the adhesive is exposed, which then sticks directly onto the item which needs to be laminated. This method, apart from having the obvious benefit of not requiring expensive equipment, is also suitable for those items which would be damaged by heat. Cold laminators range from simple two roller, hand crank machines up to large and complex motor driven machines with high precision rollers, adjustable roller pressure and other advanced features.
Cold lamination increased in popularity with the rise of wide format inkjet printers, which often used inks and papers incompatible with hot lamination