Hardcover Binding Made Easy

YOU JUST completed a true printed masterpiece. Maybe it is all about the history of your company or university. For the excellence of the job done, you receive many compliments. Then comes the ultimate question from the top: could we have this masterpiece bound into an attractive hardcover binding? After all, as everyone is aware, clever “packaging,” called binding, enhances every printed product.

In-Plant Graphics, in its April article on digital book production, concluded that the future for on-demand books is indeed very encouraging. These days, thanks to clever software and digital printing equipment, it is relative easy to put together a book. As a fact, the technology and training to master all aspects of prepress and digital printing are so readily available that some binding establishments, which used to bind only books for libraries, have added printing and are now thriving; they print books in very small quantities and hardcover bind them.

A good example of such a trend is presented by the Bridgeport National Bindery (www.BNBindery.com) near Springfield, Mass. In the 1970s, the company still was a typical library binder with about 12 employees. Visit Bridgeport now. It hosts an array of digital print equipment from Xerox, HP, Océ, Xeikon, etc. Every day, the company prints and binds approximately 8,000 hardcover books. Some orders are as small as just one. Thanks to all the modern tools implemented, Bridgeport is able to produce it at a most competitive price.

Now back to your superior’s appeal. How can you follow up on his/her request for a hardcover binding? What should you do?

Well, first you need to decide how many are wanted and how often such requests are coming through. Then you may want to invest in some very basic binding equipment. However, that is a budget item and requires a sharp pencil to figure out if it is a worthwhile endeavor. If hardcover binding a printed masterpiece is only an occasional request, most likely you are better off using a library binder’s services (www.lbibinders.org).

In this highly specialized industry, these binders have invested lots of money into automated equipment to bind individual books. They use an exclusive double-fan adhesive binding method, which allows a bound book to open virtually flat.

Doing It Yourself

If you would like to start binding some books yourself, it is a relatively easy task. To get started, you do not need a glue machine to apply the polyvinyl acetate (PVA) adhesive onto a covering material. A foam-rubber roller and a tray will do. Just like painting, make sure you apply as little adhesive as possible.

On the LBI Web site, you’ll find many suppliers that sell covering materials, endpapers, reinforcing materials, etc. If you still hesitate and lack the necessary know-how, a variety of books on basic bookbinding are available to introduce you to the basic tools.

The next step would be to invest in some tabletop equipment. During the most recent AIIM/On Demand show in Boston, this writer and bookbinder with more than 50 years of trade experience, was impressed at the clever gadgets developed by a company called Fastbind (www.fastbind.com).

Let’s say you want to make a hardcover case out of a printed and laminated cover material. How are you going to center the title exactly on the spine? The trick is to use a case gauge with a built-in light that allows you to center the spine exactly as desired. If you look at the Fastbind site, you will find everything needed to bind occasional hardcover books. Fastbind’s perfect binding solution allows both the binding of soft covers and hardcover bindings. Best of all, there is no need for glue pots. The binding materials Fastbind sells are pressure sensitive—in short, they’re ideal, clean solutions for the in-plant.

If your establishment already does softcover binding on perfect binding equipment and you want to produce hardcover bindings in a cost-efficient manner, then you may want to consider some of the equipment used by the new photo book printing shops. But here’s a question: since you already produce softcover bindings on your binder, how can you add a folded endpaper to the front and back without grinding off the fold?

The trick is to use a so-called “extended edge endpaper.” This is an endpaper with a reinforcing strip mounted over the fold. The paper strip extends approximately 1/8? over the fold, which the perfect binder then grinds off. You can find such endpapers and most binding materials at www.lbsbind.com.

To cover the perfect binding adhesive, use any waste paper. When the adhesive is dry and cured, that waste paper is torn off. Thereafter, that book block is trimmed on three sides. Headbands are easily glued onto the head and tail. A reinforcing material, like a gauze is recommended to go over the spine and onto the endpapers at least 5/8? to 3/4? on both sides.

Now you are ready for case making. A company called On Demand Machinery (www.ODMachinery.com) sells a complete hand case-making system with a glue applicator, a case-gauge with a built-in light, turning-in bars and a cover pressing station. A casing-in and pressing-joint-creasing machine compliments the setup. These American-made machines have had a tremendous success in the on-demand printing and especially in the photo book printing and binding establishments.

A competitive company is New Hampshire-based GP2 Technologies (www.gp2tech.com), which builds some clever case-making machinery that requires zero setups. IPG