After working in the industry managing a Laminating company for 3 years I joined forces with the directors of Jenrite Industries of Auckland and formed a new company to promote laminating products and services to the South Island market.

Company registered as South Island Lamination Specialists Ltd in March 1990. Started operation from my home and garage in Beckenham, initially selling Laminating machines and film to copy centres, and providing a backup laminating service to these copy centres and a select few printing companies. Initially services offered were 2 sided thermal encapsulation and low volume singled sided thermal lamination. Moved into commercial Premises in March 1991, employed 2 staff and started promoting our products and services.

1992 we purchased our first Autobond adhesive laminating machine and offered a single sided laminating service to the South Island print industry, using the technology I had worked with previously. Over the next 10 years we expanded our plant by adding more Autobond adhesive machines, employed more staff, and moved again to larger and more modern premises.

We moved into digital printing in the mid 1990’s with the purchase of our first Colour Laser Copier followed by a wide format inkjet printer.

About 14 years ago the North Island shareholding was bought out and the company was renamed Lamination and Digital Ltd. With 100% ownership we have been able to steer the company in the direction we felt best for our market.

In 2003 we decided Thermal Lamination technology had reached the level where traditional adhesive lamination was no longer the ideal solution. We did a lot of serious homework, and purchased our Diamond 102 laminator. This device is the only fully automated stack to stack laminator in New Zealand, and we believe one of the most productive and best machines ever manufactured for graphic laminating. Lamtex machines are the preferred choice of all serious trade laminators in New Zealand, including Lamatex, PLC, and GLC of Auckland. We estimate over 90% of all single sided graphic Laminating in New Zealand is run on Lamtex machinery.

Our volume of business has grown dramatically to the level where a second laminator was purchased in late 2007 – a TM720 – the smaller brother of the Diamond 102. We moved to larger purpose built premises in Nov 2007 to cater for the increasing work volumes and extra space required to warehouse materials and to allow for future growth.

In early 2008 we have added another single sided laminator – this time a small hand feed machine using the same technology as the Diamond 102 and TM720.

Other Servces.

We have developed our digital print area to produce products to backup our customers. We can provide short run colour at high quality in many cases indistinguishable from offset print, on popular coated stocks. These can be 1 side or 2 side laminated, and processed as any offset job.

We have full variable data printing including images, which allows for example 21 ID cards to be printed per SRA3 sheet at full production speed, all with different information from names, to photos.

We are pushing our production of plastic ID type cards with combination of digital print onto advanced plastics, and lamination with heavy weight films. Magnetic stripe and bar code technology included!

Our wide format digital print area now has 4 machines from 1520mm maximum print width, offering high quality photographic printing to lower cost higher volume print. All these devices use non fade pigment inks with ICC profiles on all stocks used. Our stocks range from low cost papers, to photo medias, self adhesive synthetic, backlit media, banner media, and artistic media including canvas.

We have invested in Monaco colour profiling with all our digital devices calibrated with densotometers and profiles created in-house with a spectrometer in the actual printing environment. Our understanding of colour and the importance of accurate colour in our printed results is not lost on our customers.

Being able to produce high quality print is pointless if we can’t finish it well. We have invested in a high quality Sallmetal mounting laminator from Holland that allows the application of specialised pressure sensitive films, and mounting of printed product to various substrates including steel, MDF board, heavy card, and various plastic sheets.

Our two side encapsulation service offers a solution from 1 off posters to high volume fully automated solutions. We offer film options from lightweight through to heavy weight, and in matt or gloss finish. Because we import our material directly, and combine various stages of automation depending on the job, we are able to offer very competitive pricing. Our two sided lamination service offers from ID card size to over 1600mm width!

Recently we installed a large hydraulic press that runs up to 450 ton. This device is specific for cutting a 500 x 700mm print into a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. Obviously a specialised product, but showing enormous potential. The quality of the finished cut puzzle compares to anything available today, but as a 1off! We offer this service via internet and direct marketing. Our target is anybody who wants a one off puzzle from their own image. Already exporting worldwide.

We were the first company in New Zealand to produce full colour graphic mousemats using laminating technology. Initially we sought patent protection but realised the cost involved didn’t justify the limited protection offered. Instead we simply made thousands, including export into Australia and the Pacific.

The chances are if something can be produced using laminating technology we already do it, or have done it already!