Patent ID: 7771553

Claim:
A laminator system for laminating opposing sides of a document, comprising: a frame; a laminator unit provided on the frame; a pair of cooperating structures operable to feed substrates into the laminator unit; a supply of stock material provided on the frame, the stock material having adhesive provided on an adhesive carrying surface thereof; a feeder system operable to feed a selected length of the stock material from the supply in a feeding direction so that a leading portion of the selected length passes beyond the pair of cooperating structures and a trailing portion of the selected length extends from the pair of cooperating structures towards the supply with an intermediate portion of the selected length between the leading and trailing portions positioned adjacent the cooperating structures, the supply of stock material being oriented such that the adhesive carrying surface at the intermediate portion faces generally away from the cooperating structures; the pair of cooperating structures being oriented transversely with respect to the feeding direction to receive the intermediate portion of the selected length in a transversely folded relation; a document guide constructed to guide the document to the pair of cooperating structures, thereby enabling a lead end of the document to be received in the folded intermediate portion so that the cooperating structures can feed the document with the leading and trailing portions of the selected length on opposing sides thereof into the laminator unit; and a cutter positioned between the supply and the pair of cooperating structures in the feeding direction, the cutter being operable to cut the stock material transversely with respect to the feeding direction to cut the selected length of the stock material from a remainder of the stock material; the laminator unit being operable to activate the adhesive as the document and the leading and trailing portions of the selected length of the stock material are advanced therethrough, thereby bonding the leading and trailing portions to the opposing sides of the document; and a generally upwardly facing feed tray for receiving the document, the tray being provided vertically above the laminator unit and the pair of cooperating structures; the document guide having an arcuate configuration and including a document receiving end and a document discharging end, the document receiving end being positioned adjacent the feed tray for enabling the document to be advanced from the feed tray into the document guide, the document discharging end being lower than the document receiving end and generally aligned with the pair of cooperating structures to discharge the document to the pair of cooperating structures, the arcuate configuration of the document guide routing the document therethrough in a direction generally away from the pair of cooperating structures past the leading portion of the selected length and then back towards the pair of cooperating structures via the document discharging end.