Allied Bindery

Bound for Excellence

Accurate Estimates Equals No Surprises!

It all comes down to accurate specifications!  The better the detail, the more accurate the estimate!  No one likes surprises; particularly when it  comes to final pricing of a project.   Providing as much detail as possible at the quoting stage is a key to providing estimates that will still be accurate when the production process begins.

Often times, the initial request for quote is referred to as “budget” or “ballpark”.  Allied Bindery will provide a quote that is accurate to the specifications that are provided.  In some instances, the actual job
requirements can be significantly different than the original “budget”
estimate.  If the purchase order contains different specifications than the original estimate, the estimate will need to be validated or revised.

Many times, specification changes may have a slight impact on final pricing.  It may be that the basis weight of the paper was changed, resulting in costing and pricing changes in the amount of adhesive, cartons or shrink wrap film that is required.  These are generally minor revisions to cover
material costs.  Sometimes, the change may be significant.  For example, a
binding project could have been quoted as two-up.  In reality, the final project could be a come & go format, having a significant impact on labor costs.  Maybe you will need a partial quantity bound and delivered before the balance of all material is available.  This will have an impact on set up costs, since an additional set up will be required.  These costs tend to be higher and need to be communicated to your customer as soon as possible.

In all cases, when a project becomes live and a purchase order is provided, our Estimating/Order Entry specialists will review the scope of the purchase order in comparison to the original estimate.  If any changes or revisions are required, you will be contacted prior to the start of the job so that you will have any updated pricing that is required.  It is important to note that all estimates are tentative, pending the actual specifications for a project.

 

Do’s and Don’ts When Planning Oblong Trim Size Projects

Sometimes, from a visual perspective, nothing catches the eye like an oblong book or brochure design.  Because an oblong trim size can be more difficult to fold, stitch and bind, there are a number of planning tips that must be considered to make the production of your project flow smoothly.

Consider the benefits of printing and binding your oblong project in a multiple-up format.  Oblong projects usually combine wide pages with narrow (short) spine heights, presenting feeding and travel difficulties
on stitchers and binders.  Planning your oblong project to be printed and bound in a two-up, three-up or more format, provides the bindery with a much more stable product to feed through collators and along saddle or gathering chains.  A multiple-up format often reduces production costs, both in the printing and binding process, while insuring a higher level of cosmetic quality.

Make sure that you understand the minimum and maximum size limitations of the bindery equipment when selling, planning and printing oblong projects.  Projects may look great right through the printing process, but finding out that one of the dimensions is either too small or too large to feed through bindery equipment can result in a very expensive and embarrassing mistake.

Consider a two-up, oblong format or perfect binding, Allied Bindery can assist you with creating Come & Go layout formats on many jobs, saving considerable cost through the printing, as well as the bindery production process.  Having book saws on both of our binding lines allows for a high level of productivity, while providing significant cost and price advantages to our customers.

Oblong projects often require folding layouts that include accordion and double parallel folding in consecutive folding gates.  Allied Bindery can help you plan the accordion fold layout to minimize the potential for dog-ears that may occur during the subsequent double parallel folds required to finish a signature.

Involving the Sales and Planning professionals at Allied Bindery can help you avoid problems such as recognizing or avoiding potential production challenges with oblong projects.

Transit Vibration – A Bad Ending to a High Profile Project

Your book or brochure is finished.  The samples look great and the job is on the way to your customer.  Then the phone call from the dark side is received.  The job showed up and is full of scuffs and scratches!  What the heck    happened!

 In the simplest terms, transit vibration is the movement that takes place within a carton, or palletainer, while product is shipped, generally via truck, to the final destination.  This movement causes product surfaces to rub against each other, causing scratches and patches of surface coating or ink to rub away.  The end result is a cosmetically defective product.

 Transit vibration marking can usually be tracked back to the coating on the surface of the product.  Aqueous coating, for instance, is a popular choice among printers due to the luster and relatively inexpensive cost.  However, aqueous coating is also very soft and prone to mark easily.  If an aqueous coated product is subjected to transit vibration, the end result is often very messy.  Surface coatings that include metallic inks or dark color, full ink coverage are also highly susceptible to transit vibration marking.

 There are several options a printer may choose to minimize the potential for transit vibration damage:

  • UV Coating tends to stand up well, but is an expensive option.
  • Most film lamination choices will protect against transit vibration issues.  Again, this is an expensive option.
  • Shrink wrapping the product prior to shipment is a relatively cost effective option and can be performed by the bindery service provider.  Product can often be wrapped in convenient quantities, reducing the price of protection even further.

 Allied Bindery performs a rub test on all book, magazine, catalog and booklet covers in an effort to determine if transit vibration may be a problem.  If it appears that a product may be negatively impacted by transit vibration, we will contact you to discuss protection options.

 We encourage you to contact your Allied Bindery Representative to discuss project planning issues such as the prevention of transit vibration marking.  Our experience and ideas will likely save you money or help avoid the creation of a production problem.

 A core value of Allied Bindery is to communicate on an on-going basis with our industry friends.  Our objective is to share insight and observations considered valuable and helpful for our customers, helping you to provide an ever-increasing value proposition to your customers.

 Allied Bindery is a premier trade bindery located inMadison Heights,Michigan, celebrating 20 plus years of servicing your bindery requirements.

Spine Perforations – Great Advantage or Wasted Effort?

Printers often incorporate spine perforations into the printed signature, whether folding a sheetfed form or delivering directly from a web press.  The perforation provides a distinct advantage to the folding process.  A spine perforation allows air to escape during the folding process, reducing the chances of wrinkling, bottling or shingling.  This, in turn, results in a better looking final product.

A significant risk that is often overlooked by a folder operator or web press operator is the size of the perforation blade or wheel.  If a perforation is too aggressive, i.e., lots of perf, not much paper remaining; the spine of the signature may break apart during the collation/gathering process at the bindery.

The amount of paper that is left intact on the spine provides the only strength to hold the spine together during the collation process.  The mechanical gathering process in the bindery requires that the spine of a signature be pulled down into the collator grippers using vacuum suckers.  If the perforation blade or wheel used at the folder or press was too aggressive, the paper will peel apart at the spine of the signature when the vacuum suckers begin to the pull the form into the grippers.

Once this happens, there is often no alternative other than to hand feed the affected signatures.  Hand feeding or hand collation results in increased expense and decreased production speed on the binder.  This is a phone call that the bindery does not want to make and the printer doesn’t want to receive.

A quick way to check the strength of the perforation is to flex and jog a handful of signatures at the folder or web press.  If the perforations show any indication of splitting or breaking apart during the hand jogging routine, they will break and fail during the mechanical collating process.  If this is noticed, it is time to change to a less aggressive perforation wheel or blade, thus helping to avoid unanticipated problems and additional charges during the binding process.

Spruce Up Your Perfect Bound Books with a Pocket Folder Cover

 

 Incorporating a pocket folder as the cover for your perfect bound project adds a visual pizzazz that can impress your customer.  Keep in mind that there are several key planning steps that must be considered to ensure that the pocket folder cover design is successful.

 A pocket folder cover project must be designed and prepared to allow for pre-binding of the text block, prior to inclusion of the cover.  The purpose of a pre-bind of the text is to allow the face and foot edge of the book block to be trimmed smooth prior to being aligned with the face and foot edge of the pocket folder. 

  Once the book block has been pre-trimmed at the face and foot edge, the book block can be combined with the pocket folder cover, using the foot edge as the primary collating guide.  The Binder Operator will then adjust the amount of spine grind to allow the face edge of the book to align with the face edge of the pocket folder.  Once the book block is glued into the pocket folder cover, a head trim is performed, resulting in text that is nearly perfectly fitted to the pocket folder cover.

 Remember, the face and foot edge of the pocket folder cannot be trimmed without destroying the pocket.  Fitting of the text to the pocket folder cover during two binding passes, as described, leaves the pocket folder intact, providing smoothly trimmed text and a pleasing product to your customer.

 Involving the Sales and Planning Professionals at Allied Bindery will help you avoid problems during the planning and design stages for pocket folder covers.  Give us a call and let us help you achieve your customer’s expectations 

 A core value of Allied Bindery is to communicate on an on-going basis with our industry friends.  Our objective is to share insight and observations considered valuable and helpful for our customers, helping you to provide an ever-increasing value proposition to your customers.                                        

Allied Bindery is a premier trade bindery located inMadison Heights,Michigan, celebrating 20 years of servicing your bindery requirements.