New GBC Foton 30 Laminator Eliminates Frustration and Saves 98% of Users’ Time: A Win-Win

GBC Foton 30

The GBC (Booth 4004) story began in 1947 when founder William Lane and two business partners helped Chicago printers find a faster, more reliable way to bind and laminate. After merging with ACCO Brands in 2005, GBC became part of the world’s largest supplier of branded office products. Seventy plus years later, the original vision and commitment to innovation is evidenced by its newest laminator: the GBC Foton 30.

Laminating jobs are historically fraught with frustration, and rarely go smoothly. Whether it’s signs, posters, spec sheets, or a meeting handout, laminating is labor-intensive and time-consuming, a dreaded task of facilities that need products that are consistent, reliable, fast, accurate, and compact.

“I generally avoid lamination jobs, because laminating has the most lead time and human involvement,” says Jack Christmann, site manager for Zebra Technologies HQ Office Systems, who oversees copying, printing, and laminating. “Every sheet needs to be monitored at all times, so a 30-sheet job can take at least an hour, if not longer, because of the tinkering and human element involved. You start by setting up the job for printing on the computer. As the documents are printed you have to insert each one individually into a pouch, making sure it’s perfectly aligned, and then you stand there feeding the job through one by one.” Christmann notes that with the Foton 30, he can drop up to 30 documents in the tray, press run, and walk away — saving more than 30 minutes of his time to work on other things.

Randi Downs, corporate administrative assistant at Century Tile, laminates daily and echoes Christmann’s experience that she can run the Foton 30 and walk away, allowing it to do the heavy lifting for her. “My first impression of the Foton 30 was it was amazing, small-in-size, and fast. I finished my first job laminating in one day instead of three days, and was ready to buy it immediately.”

After four years in development, the Foton 30 is redefining limits in the lamination category. It is time-efficient and cost-effective, resulting in superior quality output for a fraction of the cost of an industrial machine. And it’s proven to free up 98% of users’ time spent laminating, compared to using manual pouch loading and feeding.

Other benefits include automated deskew, which gives perfect positioning and borders every time. Internal sensors auto-detect film thickness and provide perfect cuts with no waste or manual trimming. Even cartridge loading is as simple as dropping the cartridge into the machine.  No film threading is required, and it’s the world’s first fully automated laminating system with auto-cartridge that sits on a desktop. Mailroom managers, facilities managers, and franchise printers will also appreciate that the Foton 30 comes with a risk-free 60-day trial and a two-year or 5,000-cycle warranty.  The GBC Foton 30 is available for $799.99.

“As we were developing the Foton 30, we recognized the consumer pain points and difficulty of laminating numerous pieces through pouch lamination, and looked to solve it in an innovative and economical way,” says Boris Elisman, chairman, president, and CEO, ACCO Brands.  “This is a product that I believe will revolutionize the industry.  It’s a product that really stands for what our company does at its best: pioneer and resolve market-wide problems through cutting-edge creativity and affordability.”

Christmann says, “My experience with the Foton 30 was the first time I embraced laminating jobs. In my industry, time savers are extremely valuable, and when a new piece of equipment like this comes around, it’s a very valuable asset to have in your arsenal. What normally would be a horrible project turned out to be something we were excited to provide for our customer.”