The evolution of binderies shows a trend of continual value added – more operations on the same piece, multiple operations inline, customization, individualization and sample packaging. The innovation of new processes to involve, intrigue and awe the consumer by using innovative ways to draw them to action is impressive.
I’m seeing exponential growth in unusual products demonstrated by both increased quantities and a wider range of processes. Five case studies to exemplify this are:
1. Tipping
Not many years ago, tipping included inserting a simple card onto a single panel heavier carrier. Fast forward to 2009, and I’m seeing machines tip packets, cards, or sachets on two sides of a carrier in one pass. I’m seeing two, three, or four tip-ons per pass; I’m seeing one or two tip-ons followed by increasingly exotic folds, such as six-panel double gates, six-panel rolls, eight-panel accordions, with the addition of one, two, or three wafer/clip seals, glue dots in up to 12 positions, glue lines, remoistenable glue lines, time slits, “L” shaped micro-perfs, inkjet on one or two sides, two-directional and multiple position inkjet addressing, labeling, batch counting and inline multiple shrink wrap. Over the last decade, the number of variables added to simple tipping has “multiplied 15-fold.”
2. Perfect Binding
Perfect binding has changed dramatically over the past 10 years. P.U.R. (polyurethane resin) is becoming more common and is now in its seventh stage of product improvement. Present day PUR glue, when compared to PUR glue of 1997, has a cure time that is 95% less, has a substantially better pull-flex test quality, is very environmentally-friendly, completely recyclable and can run a wider range of materials. A new publishing “fad” of the last three to four years has involved perfect bound books with front and back foldout covers cut flush to the face. For most shops, this required feeding the signatures, applying “bars” of glue on the spine and inline trimming only the face. The second pass required feeding the book block, binding it on the four-panel cover and trimming the book’s head and tail. Now, there are two main machinery manufacturers that a) manufacture a three-knife trimmer attachment that pulls the front and back covers back before the face is trimmed and b) manufacture a single blade knife that trims the face of the book when it is clamped in the grind-off position. I am confident that you will see one or two of these machines in the Canadian market very soon.
3. Inkjet
Try: inkjet heads on all three sections of a folding machine; inkjetting both sides of a sheet; inkjet heads on tipping machines that inkjet both the carrier and the tip-on in the same pass guaranteeing tip-on/carrier number matching. Then, there is inside/outside inkjet addressing, where the bound-in center spread self-mailer is addressed with the same address as the outside cover of the magazine.
Recently, what has become popular are blow-in cards (reply cards that fall out loose from a saddle-stitched or perfect bound book) where the personalized address is inkjetted the same on the reply card as on the magazine. As well, heavy blocks of ink are being “inkjetted” on the lips of folded signatures, on a folding machine, and are subsequently, saddle-stitched. The logic behind this process is that inkjetting before stitching decreases the possibility of mixing up sections on the saddle-stitcher; of course, the inkjet is removed in the trimming process. Now there is inkjet advertising on the open face of a perfect bound book. Inkjet operations are definitely one of the growth areas in a trade bindery.
4. Remoistenable Gluing
Remoistenable gluing for self-mailers is a growth market. Offline, sheet-fed runs that go to a bindery can be anywhere from a thousand pieces to millions of pieces. The trade binderies that do remoistenable gluing (there are about 45 in North America) are continually adding inline operations. Innovations here include remoistenable glue lines that can add one or two cards, do time slitting in two directions and knock out a window and/or apply a clear plastic window, reactivate glue, produce multiple bang-tails, crimp seal, inkjet several panels, wafer/clip seal, cold glue pockets, insert coupons into a cold glue pockets and finally, address and mail! My observation is that 95% of the offline remoistenable glue jobs are produced by five percent of the printers. This must mean that they focus on self-mailers and know more about postal regulations than their competitors.
5. Saddle-stitching
Saddle-stitching, “the old mainstay,” is improving rapidly. One of the main stitching machine manufacturers now makes a machine that trims books 3-up. New standard machines are now producing books much smaller than the older, standard models. The skill required to run a new stitcher is substantially less than that required by the old stitchers.
Some trade binderies have introduced special stitcher heads that are common to big production shops. These heads adjust the stitch-head to stitch each book a different thickness. “Selective binding” tells the machine to feed different pockets for each book (e.g. one book might have 4/16 inch, the next book 4/16 inch 1/8 inch, the next 3/16 inch 1/8 inch) and the stitcher head adjusts automatically to adapt to each book thickness. As well, inline die cutting on stitchers is now possible so that the finished saddle-stitched book comes out shaped inline. Saddle-stitching is changing! The bottom line for your bottom line? Be aware of these changes. Learn how to sell them.