Keeping Binding 'In The Fold'

While printers generally bind one item in large quantities, UC's workload varies.

"We have to evaluate each book to see how we're going to approach it. It's interesting and very challenging," says Martinelli, who has more than 26 years of experience in the industry.

About half of UC's journal binding is done by double fan adhesive binding using an internally plasticized polyvinyl acetate adhesive to bond the pages together, ensuring both flexibility and durability. Each book is clamped down, and the text block is fanned to expose 1⁄32˝ along the spine of the book. Glue is then applied, which covers each side of each page, creating an internal bond that provides stronger binding. This yields a product that can handle a great deal of use, such as a book in a large university library.