Use this article when your shop laminates covers, postcards, business cards, or other printed pieces and you need Estimator to price the laminate step on quotes that include a finish coating. After this you will have a laminate machine on the Laminate table that prices correctly on quotes, with the laminate step appearing on the price breakdown.
Steps
1. Add the laminate machine
Open Estimate Setup → Finishing Machines → Laminate, then select + Add New. Fill in the fields below.
Identification
Name — recommended format is brand and model, so the machine is easy to recognise on quotes (e.g., "Laminator 1").
Tags — link this laminator to the substrates and upstream presses it can run after. Estimator uses tags to pair the laminator with compatible work.
Sheets this laminator accepts
Sheet sizes — the press sheet sizes that can be fed in. Select from the drop-down (e.g., SRA1, B1, RA1). The options come from your configured substrates, so to add a new sheet size you must first create a substrate with that size — it will then appear here.
Width (min/max) and height (min/max) — sheet dimensions in millimetres (metric) or inches (imperial). For example, 200–1100 mm, or 8–43 in. Only set these if you are not already restricting via Sheet sizes, to avoid double-constraining the same dimension.
Max weight — maximum paper weight the laminator can feed reliably (e.g., 349 gsm, or roughly 130 lb cover). Heavier stock requires a beefier machine; set this to keep ineligible substrates off the route.
Lamination cost per finish
Each row below covers one laminate finish you offer. Leave the cost blank for a finish you don't offer.
Lamination Gloss Cost Per Area — material cost per sheet (or per area, depending on tenant unit) for gloss finish (e.g., €0.034 per sheet).
Lamination Matt Cost Per Area — material cost for matt finish (e.g., €0.04 per sheet).
Lamination Anti-Scuff Matt Cost Per Area — material cost for anti-scuff matt finish (e.g., €0.074 per sheet).
Lamination Velvet Soft Touch Cost Per Area — material cost for velvet / soft-touch finish (e.g., €0.051 per sheet).
Speed
Laminate Sheets Per Hour — lamination speed (e.g., 1000 sheets/hour for a typical thermal laminator, 3000 sheets/hour for a high-speed line).
Lamination Passes — the number of passes through the machine for a double-sided lamination job (1 for single-sided, 2 for double-sided). Estimator multiplies the run time by this value.
Cost
Machine rate per hour — all hourly running costs in tenant currency (amortisation, electricity, heat). For example, €50–€100/hour depending on the machine.
Labor rate per hour — operator cost per hour (e.g., €30–€100/hour). If the operator can do other work while the machine runs, enter a fraction of their full rate (e.g., 50%).
Minimum charge — floor amount. If the calculated laminate cost is below this, Estimator applies the minimum instead.
Make-ready and spoilage
Laminate Make Ready Hours — setup time per section in hours (e.g., 0.5 hours, or 30 minutes, on a roll-changeover-heavy laminator).
Make-ready labor per section — fixed labor cost added once per section to set the laminator up (e.g., €5–€30 per section).
Running spoils % — extra sheets consumed as a percentage of the necessary run quantity (e.g., 0–2%).
Overs per section — extra sheets produced per section on top of the ordered quantity (e.g., 1–20 sheets).
Open the card view on the machine row to set additional details:
Run speed variations — override Laminate Sheets Per Hour for specific stock weights, coatings, or finishes — heavier or anti-scuff films typically slow the line.
Volume markup tiers — tier the markup by quantity (e.g., 50% on small runs, lower on large runs).
Save the change. The Pending Changes count increments by one in the sidebar.
2. Connect the laminator to the product category
Open the product category that uses lamination (for example, Business Cards or a cover variant of a perfect-bound book). On the part row for the laminated part, open Production Steps and add the laminate operation so Estimator includes it on every quote that selects this category.
If the product offers laminate finish as a customer choice (gloss / matt / anti-scuff / velvet), confirm the category exposes the finish options the laminator supports — otherwise Estimator will skip the route for finishes that have no cost on the machine row.
Save the change. Pending Changes increments again.
3. Apply the changes
Open the Pending Changes panel in the sidebar and review the staged edits to the laminate machine and the product category. Select Apply Changes to publish them to live setup.
The Pending Changes count returns to zero and the laminate machine is now part of the active configuration.
Things to know
Single-sided vs double-sided lamination is controlled by Lamination Passes, not by adding a separate machine. Set passes to 2 if your shop runs every cover through the line twice for double-sided protection.
If a quote skips the laminator for a finish you do offer (e.g., velvet), the most common cause is a blank cost on that finish's row — Estimator only routes through a laminator for finishes that have a non-zero cost set.
The Max weight field is a hard gate, not a warning. A 400 gsm cover quote will skip a laminator whose Max weight is 349 gsm even if every other field matches.