Laminater

In a laminater for laminating a film onto a substrate and having feed means for feeding a substrate along a substrate feed path, the substrate having positioning holes to assist in aligning the film thereon, film feeding means for feeding the film from a continuous web along a film feed path, bonding means to bond the film onto a surface of the substrate, film handling means for tacking a leading edge portion of the film onto a leading edge portion of the substrate and for maintaining the position of the film relative to the substrate surface to prevent wrinkling of the film during bonding, cutting means positioned along the film feed path for cutting the film to a length corresponding to the length of the substrate during bonding, and means to remove the laminated substrate from the bonding means, the improvement comprising:

• a punching device provided at a predetermined position on the film feed path to form alignment holes in said film;
• removal means operatively associated with the punching device to remove from the film chips formed by the punching of the film and to collect said chips, said removal means including means for directing a gaseous fluid against the formed chips;
• and
• control means to control operation of said punching device to form the alignment holes in said film at positions which correspond to the positioning holes on said substrate when said film has been laminated on said substrate, said control means including sensor means positioned along said substrate feed path to detect the positioning holes in said substrate and operating means to operate said punching device in response to said sensor means.