Some people may think the binding marketplace is in decline, but those in the know believe it is undergoing major transition, brought about by the internet, and smarter, more affordable printing devices.
Organisations are no longer required to stockpile thousands of suitably bound brochures, booklets and other marketing publications for distribution, when all they have to do is post these documents on their websites, for customers to download and print at their convenience. It is known as “print-on-demand”.
The trend towards print-on-demand is having profound effect on the copy centre industry and binding system marketplace.
Fortunately there is cause for optimism in the binding system marketplace as new digital on-demand publishing technology and the latest in binding technology drive document presentation to new level. While we may not be binding the same volume of documents as in the past, we are looking for systems that provide ‘the edge’ in presentation, and are user-friendly.
You can still choose from the familiar mechanical ‘punch and bind’ options such as plastic comb (still the most widely used), plastic coil/spiral, and the increasingly popular wire binding (‘twin loop wire’) – as well as thermal or perfect binding. One major advantage of the plastic comb, plastic coil/spiral, and the ‘twin loop’ systems is the ability to let pages lie flat when opened.
Many of the world’s binding system vendors have identified the small-run book production market as key growth area.
Chris Fyfe, director of Impact Klipbind, says this trend was highlighted at the recent Printech Expo in Auckland, where Fuji-Xerox demonstrated printer designed to produce colour publications on-demand. “These machines pump out pages at high speed – it’s almost case of inserting disk at one end and collecting the fully bound book at the other,” he says.
Today vendors can configure on-demand publishing solutions to suit short-run, in-house production. For these applications, robust and simple-to-use binding solution is must. M
