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Binding Machine Buyers Guide

Binding Machine Buyer’s Guide


Binding machines are popular in offices throughout the UK and are great if you have a stack of documents that you need to keep securely and neatly together. Document binding is a great way for presenting manuals, reports and company presentations. Binding machines can bind from just a few pages to hundreds of pages, you just need to purchase the correct binding comb for your required capacity of documents.

Binding MachinesBefore purchasing a binding machine you should consider the following factors which will determine which binding machine will be suitable for your needs:
What type of documents will you be binding:
The size i.e. A4, A3 and thickness i.e. 80gsm, 100gsm of the documents will need to be considered before choosing a binding machine.

What volume of sheets you will need to bind:
You can bind from a small number of pages to a few hundreds of pages. If you only bind a small number of pages then a budget binding machine will be sufficient however if you plan to bind hundreds of sheets together you may need to opt for a higher quality binding machine.

Would you like to have the option of reopening the bounded pages to take out or add in new pages.
Comb and wire binders are ideal for reopening to edit a bundle of documents or to add in new pages. Other binder types are more difficult to reopen like binder tapes or thermal binding.

Binder types:

Comb BindersComb Binders – Comb binding is similar to wire binding. With comb binding you can combine loose printed pages together using plastic binding combs that have teeth that fits into the punched holes. Comb binders come in a range of sizes, capacity and colours and are an ideal method of binding if you need to reopen to add or take away sheets. Comb binders are capable of binding from a few sheets to hundreds of sheets. Comb binders are a popular method of binding and one of the advantages is that the bounded documents can be laid flat when fully opened.

Wire BindersCoil/Wire Binders – Wire binders are a very popular method of binding, many notebooks come wire bounded. Wire binding is ideal for durability and your notepad or documents can be laid out flat when opened. The wire binder uses wire coils or c shaped wire spines which fit directly into the punched holes.

Thermal BindersThermal Binders – For a paper back look, thermal binders are ideal. Thermal binders use thermal glue which is usually placed in the spine of the cover that goes around the document. With thermal binding you do not need to punch holes into the document. Thermal binding gives a professional finish however is not ideal for editing as it can be difficult to remove or add pages at a later stage.