June 2006 - Three Vital “In-the-Trenches” Services

If a bindery were a football team, processes such as adhesive binding, side sewing and casemaking would be the quarterback, running back and wide receiver – the high-profile roles that dictate a team’s success. But there are many other processes that are less glamorous, yet equally important - the offensive line, if you will. Drilling, shrink wrapping and handwork are three of these “in the trenches” processes that we’ll detail this month:

High-speed drilling, shrink wrapping and handwork are services that don’t receive a lot of attention but play a critical role in the printing process. These services have an important role in making sure projects are completed faster and with better quality.

Drilling: High-speed drilling allows adhesive-bound books to be put into ring binders – an important feature for products such as automotive manuals and retail store catalogs. Many of these applications call for standard 3- hole drilling, but 5-hole and 7-hole drilling can be performed as well. The most common hole sizes are 5/16”, 3/8” and 1/2”, which should allow drilled books to fit almost any ring binder.

Muscle Bound recently installed a high-speed Lawson drilling machine to further enhance production speed and format choices. For most drilling patterns and trim sizes, this machine allows two separate piles of books to be drilled at once for even greater efficiency.

Shrink Wrapping: While coatings such as aqueous, varnish and UV do a good job protecting most books, many products benefit from a little additional protection against transit marking and scuffing. Shrink wrapping offers the ultimate in protection, and the nominal cost increase is well worth it to avoid a reprint.

Muscle Bound offers two options for shrink wrapping:

• Bundle (or open-ended) shrink wrapping is performed in-line during adhesive binding. Books are often shrink wrapped in “convenient lift” quantities in this process, although specified quantities are possible.
• L-seal shrink wrapping fully encloses a set quantity of books. Although it’s an offline process, L-seal shrink wrapping is best suited for retail product sets or direct mail applications, as wrapped products are approved for postal transit.

Handwork: Some books require special post-binding processing before they’re complete. At Muscle Bound, we routinely perform operations such as sticker or seal application; CD, DVD or booklet placement inside book covers; and other special fulfillment procedures. Many of these processes can be performed efficiently when they’re incorporated with binding and finishing production.

The realm of handwork can also include certain book repair processes including cover removal and replacement. These services are popular for converting hardcover books to softcover in order to reach a target market or price point.

The Muscle Bound Advantage
Muscle Bound Bindery is one of the country’s foremost producers of Otabind books. We offer a wide variety of trim size and book thickness possibilities, and can dedicate two binding machines to the process to handle high-volume projects. Our range of binding solutions also includes high-quality perfect binding, case binding, library binding, folding, shrink wrapping, laminating and more. Give us a call today to begin planning your next successful project.