Glossary → Laminate
Laminate.
a protective layer added over a finished print: film applied cold or hot, or a liquid coating that dries or cures
A layer put over a finished print so that abrasion, cleaning and daylight hit it instead of the ink. Three families do the job: pressure-sensitive film that goes down cold under roller pressure, thermal film whose adhesive needs a heated roller, and liquid coating that is rolled or sprayed and then dried or cured. Drytac's Interlam Pro Gloss is the cold case, a PVC film carrying an aqueous acrylic adhesive on a siliconized release liner, while Marabu splits its own liquid coatings into UV-curable and water-based and sells the roll coater that lays them down. The word UV does three unrelated jobs in this aisle and shops read the wrong one: a UV-curable laminate is a coating that hardens under a lamp, a UV-blocking laminate is about daylight reaching the pigment, and UV-cured ink is the ink underneath, not a substitute for the layer on top. Quote a UV-printed job as protected and the customer gets a bare ink surface. Lay film over a solvent print still giving off vapour and the trapped solvent lifts the adhesive after install, which the outgassing entry covers and the reprint invoice does not.