Now that we have all kinds of efficient equipment to realize the on-demand printing of books and periodicals, now we should pay more attention to how to bind books. In some of the binding systems we can touch on, we found many meaningful new products. Although they are still at a low level, they can also give some surprises to the market of scarce binding equipment.
At present, most books are paperback books. The binding of this kind of books is done with glue on the spine and the cover of the page. The technical term for printing is called glue binding. No matter whether such a book is truly "perfect (the term" perfect binding "also means" perfect binding "in English), it is still a relatively satisfactory way of binding, and it holds a significant position in the book printing industry Status.
In this article, we will discuss those bookbinding technologies suitable for digital book printing. We will choose the point of view of producing books for the sale of books, so we will only study the binding method of books that we bought from bookstores and can be read at home. That is to say, there is only one color cover, the size of the book after trimming is 6 × 9 inches, and the books and periodicals within an error range of 1 inch above and below. We can assume that the bound book will become a neat book on all three sides. For simplicity, we also assume that the contents of books and periodicals are black and white (in fact, many books are like this). There are many kinds of book binding methods for this category, each with its own merits.
In this article, we will first build a stage to describe the basic processes and methods related to binding. Then some of these devices will be briefly introduced. Finally, we will return to the question of how to choose different equipment for different requirements. Facts have proved that even after 10 years of on-demand binding production, it is still difficult to choose the best binding equipment suitable for many production environments.
Several factors of binding
A key question in many places is whether the purpose of printing is to print some single pages or to print different single-page copies of each page, or to print the exact same book as expected. If these books are printed according to a customer ’s order, it is crucial to choose equipment and software that can meet various needs (for example, the books they print will be placed in bookstores or for Used by a service). Today, the installation of most equipment for printing books on demand is designed to print dozens or hundreds of short-run printing jobs. At this point, the demand depends on the publisher rather than individual customers (the exception worth mentioning is Ingram's "LightningSource" device, which can really be used to handle the needs of single prints). From receiving tasks to production to transportation, when the number of prints is low, they will become very easy to do. But true on-demand production, such as the production of only one book, will become more and more important in the future, and some related equipment and tools have already appeared.
Preparation session
Before we start talking about the binding process, we will explain what we need to prepare and pay attention to. Because they are directly related to the choice of binding method. We believe that the following conditions should all be met: the manuscript is complete and has been arranged according to pages; a suitable outer cover has been designed, the spine conforms to the thickness of the book; a suitable monochrome printing machine It has also been prepared properly; it can print on both sides of the paper at an appropriate speed according to the volume of the book design; the color cover has been found to print in the corresponding color.
Full page
Once the book has been typeset, the next step is to set the book for printing. This is relatively easy in a digital printing environment, because the size of the paper is closely related to the designed page number (in cylinder printing, it should be related to the width of the cylinder). The most basic question is whether the book is printed on a single page (one page on a printed paper) or on a double page (two pages on a printed paper). In some cylinder equipment, sometimes three pages are printed.
Orientation of paper texture
Another factor that has an influence on the design of the plate is the orientation of the paper texture. If the texture of the paper is exactly parallel to the spine of the book, then the book can be easily opened and the binding security is relatively high. In many cases, the paper texture will be determined to be in the correct direction, but at other times it is not. In fact, when printing on a cylinder press, the direction of the paper texture cannot be selected. For the size of many book pages, you can choose where to start printing on the paper, but at other times, you cannot choose. In which direction of the paper texture you get, you can only print in this direction. Fortunately, the orientation of paper texture is not a very important issue for ordinary plain paper, especially in the digital printing of some light-weight printed paper.
Viscose
Many times, hot-melt adhesives are used in the binding technology. Although cold glue is also useful, it can only be used on a few types of equipment. Therefore, we will not discuss it here. There are two main types of hot melt now: standard hot melt made of EVA and PUR glue. PUR is a new product, mainly used for high-strength binding, and has a wide temperature tolerance range. However, it is relatively expensive and requires a long curing and drying process. In addition, it requires a special treatment process to avoid it becoming gas during the binding process. These reasons limit its use, mainly used in large-capacity traditional binding. In digital printing, we still insist on using traditional hot melt.
Various methods of binding
"Comb shell cover" is a finishing process for the binding process, it will make the book stronger and easier to open. At this time, the front and back covers are cut out a small one-inch area from the spine to form the seam of the spine on the cover (comb shell), and the glue is extended to the last page and the first page according to the appropriate amount. section. This method of attaching the cover can make the last page and the first page safer; making the book easier to open. But most small binding machines cannot do this.
Another method of binding is "floating spine". The most basic glue binding is to apply glue directly to the spine. This will prevent the book from flattening when it is opened on the Table. This may not be a problem for some books, but it will not be welcome for others. For example, when you are busy doing other things, but you must refer to the contents of the book, in this case, how do you do, such as piano scores, recipes and some reference books. An effective way to make the bound book lay flat is to apply glue only to the edges of the book, while the rest of the spine is "floating".
Prepare the spine
Most medium and large binding machines use many methods when preparing spine, but the first choice is to use glue. They applied the glue to the scratches on the spine, which made the surface of the spine smooth and easier to apply the glue when binding.
As we have determined, the preparation of this kind of book can not hurt the book itself, but it is unnecessary for most digital printing products. The glue will be fixed at the free edges of the pages, so that the pages can be aligned. On the other hand, the preparation of the spine is more important for lithography. Because the distinctive feature of lithography is that there are often folding edges, and often there are many overlapping together. In this situation, ink level scratches are very important, so that the glue can reach each page.
Cover considerations
The printing of the cover is indispensable in the book binding step. If it is a short version (a few hundred copies), the lithographic cover is very practical. But usually we will choose to use toner-based printing. The toner used for cover printing is usually covered with a film, which can maintain the durability of the cover, and can also make the cover look closer to the quality of lithography. Inkjet printed covers have been widely circulated, and they are not necessarily covered. It can avoid toner scratches, which often appear in the place where the cover is often bent.
Light edge
After binding, books are often trimmed on three sides to achieve a beautiful appearance. In addition, the light edge also has practical value: if the outer edge of the book is not trimmed (the edge opposite the spine), the book is not easy to be turned. There are three methods for the smooth edge: For large-scale printing, the three-cut smooth edge is very feasible, but the price is relatively expensive. You can also choose any size of paper cutter, manual or electric. In this aspect, you have to cut three knives, which is a relatively labor-intensive method; the third method is to use a computer-controlled single-blade paper cutter. Rotate and position books.
In principle, if the pages of the book are cut quite accurately; if the cover of the book is suitable for the size of the pages, the thickness of the spine is also suitable; if the pages and the cover are well calibrated when they are bound. If these assumptions are true, then no further trimming is required. At this time, we call it "TCO repair only", and all the machines listed below can do this. You will find that they sometimes start to be delivered when the pages are not in line, so they are sometimes untrustworthy, but in most cases, they can still complete the task.
Online or non-online
Is your binding machine connected to your printing press (online operation) or in a separate workshop (offline operation)? The advantages of online operations are obvious: there are no gaps. This gapless operation can save labor and reduce the waste caused by artificial things. Online production should be used in most mass-produced digital printing systems, but it is rarely used in practice. Why? Because in most cases, it is not cost-effective, this is what we will discuss in the next section.
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