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The Top Ten questions we get asked are as follows. We're afraid that we cannot answer these directly here. The
following questions should, however, give the information you need.
10.Can you do it now?
09.If we send it in Friday afternoon can you deliver Monday by 9.00?
08.Can you do it any quicker?
07.We're running late, can you help us out?
06.How much?!
05.The spec's changed, does it matter?
04.Can we have a few advance copies?
03.The rush is off, can you hold onto them for a while?
02.Can you give a ball park figure, the jobs about...
01.This one's really unusual, can you give us a quick price?
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Some of the questions we regularly get asked are answered below. If, in all our pages, we still can't answer your query, feel
free to e-mail or even phone us, and we'll do our best to answer you. |
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If there is anything else you want to know, send an e-mail...
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Perfect binding is book binding in the style of paper back books. Single leaves or folded sections are gathered / collated into book blocks,
the perfect binding process then 'miils' the spine to rough the edge, glue is applied to the spine and around the front and back edge. A creased cover is then added, clamped whilst the hot melt glue cools, and the book is complete. Lastlty, the top, foot and fore-edge are trimmed to size.
To add strength the spine can be clench stitched to eliminate the risk of the spine breaking if the end user attempts to open the book
flat. Alternatively, although not a service we offer, folded sections can be thread sewn together prior to binding. If this process is adopted the spine of the foled section is not milled.
Most perfect binders use a hot melt adhesive, that is a glue that is heated to approximately 170 degree's centigrade. This glue is very
hard and as such can be brittle under some circumstances. Some binders use PUR adhesive - a more flexible material, but one that is more expensive and not suited to all perfect binding machines.
Not all materials are suitable for perfect binding, although they can be bound with a degree of sucess. These papers include gloss art,
matt art and
Perfect binding, for best results, should be done with the grain of the paper. If bound against the grain, the pages may fracture out of
the glue.
All estimates for perfect binding are done 'subject to suitability' of the material.
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The garphic to the right clearly shows the difference between these
three styles of binding. Although similar, the processes for binding
these materials is quite different.
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The first box above shows wire binding. The wire comes in a selection of diameters, a
selection of standard colours and in one of three different hole pitches. The image at the end of this section illustrate the punching patterns. The wire pitch is quoted as 'holes per inch' - 4:1, 3:1 or 2:1. 4:1 binding is not very common, and is not undertaken at J&M. 3:1 wire is for wire diameters between 3/16" and 9/16", 4:1 wire is for wire diameter between 5/8" and 1" diameters. To calculate the wire diameter add 3mm to the overall thickness of the item to be bound. |
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It is usual for wire binding to use square holes, rather than round, to adequately support the page against the wire. The is pre-formed, and open
as a 'U' shape, the leaves are threaded over the wire loops and the wire is then compressed to 'close' the wire. The wire can only be closed once - once in place, if changes are required, the wire is taken out and new wire used.
When calendars are bound with wire, a wire hanger is used opposite a thumb cut.
Spiral Binding is illustrated in the centre box above. This is a continuous 'sprial' of wire that is wound into the aticle being bound. It is most
commonly used for note pads, but is commonly confused with wire binding. The application of spiral binding is more limited than for wire binding and is not a common process. We do not undertake spiral binding at J&M.
Plastic comb binding, the third image in the box above, is a basic and simple form of binding. The holes are formed at a standard pitch,
but the plastic comb is available in a variety of sizes and colours. Circular combs are available from 6mm to 28mm, and are oval between 28mm and 51mm. The combs are flexible such that the 'loops' can be opened to insert the documnent and closed a number of times if required, provided you have the appropite tool.
The graphic belows indicates the range of punching patterns available for the above binding processes.
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There are several styles of binding with wire:
~ Standard
~ Calendar with thumb cut & hanger
~ Tent card calendar
~ Half Canadian
~ Full Canadian
Standard wire binding usually has 2 x 2pp covers with text between, and has the wire fully exposed. Variations on a theme include the
covers being folded to form a throw out. or French folded.
Calendars with a thumb cut and hanger, or multiple hangers for larger calendars, has the same principal as standard wire binding, but
the bound edge has two separate lengths of wire either side of a hanger, retaining the hanger. If a hanger is used, there must be a corresponding thumb cut in order to turn the pages.
Tent card calendars are simply wire bound in the way of standard wire binding, with the tent card bound into the wire.
Half Canadian binding has the wire partially concealed behind a square spine. The cover is normally a 4pp cover, with the spine printed
on which mimics perfect binding, but has the advantage of the book being able to opened completely flat without damaging the spine. The wire is exposed through the rear cover only, leaving the front cover clear to display the printed image.
Full Canadian binding has the wire fully concealed by using a 6pp or 8pp cover. The cover leaf is folded back on itself to be bound into
the wire, resulting in a book with a square spine and uninterrupted covers. |
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The measurements below are our rule of thumb calculations for covers sizes.
Firstly, for both full and half Canadian covers, calculate the thickness of the text and add 3mm for the diameter of the binding wire;
For the width of the front & back cover add the width of the text to half the diameter of the wire and an extra 3mm for the spine width,
and then add any extra overhang required at the fore-edge;
The width of the spine for Half Canadian covers is equal to the wire diameter
The width of the spine for Full Canadian covers is equal to the wire diameter plus 4mm.
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We can punch almost all normal cards and paper up to approximately 4mm thick.
We have experience of punching acetate, simulator sheets, polyprolene covers and encapsulated sheets. There are limits to these
materials, but normally only when getting excessively thick. Some of these materials are affected by heat, so can only be punched on our manual punches.
Other materials can be punched, but there are far too many to list here. As a guide, if the material is not compressible it can be
punched. To test a sample, a basic test is to cut the material with sharp scissors. If it cuts cleanly it should punch for binding.
If in doubt, we are willing to punch a sample of the material.
All our estimates for punching anything other than paper & card are 'subject to sight of the material'.
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As far as we are concerned, there are two primary types of calendar - wall hung or desk standing.
Wall hung calendars - these can be bound with wire with a hanger, or produced as 'fold, stitch & trim' with a single hole drilled in the
foot to hang the calendar by. With the wire bound variety, the binding is in two pieces either side of a hanger, which has a matching 'thumb cut' cut into the text (see the punching guide above).
Hangers come in two shapes 'Euro' and 'Half Round' - we only use the half round variety. The standard hanger length is 70mm, but
hangers can be up 500mm for very wide calendars. For the extra wide calendars (ie over 500mm) we recommend using two hangers equally spaced.
Desk calendars are free standing calendars often referred to as 'tent card calendars'. This type of calendar is usually bound with wire,
but can be bound with plastic combs (but wire is better). The 'tent card' is the structure of the calendar, and must be strong enough to adequately support the weight of the text. The tent can be formed as one piece, or in two pieces with a locking tab, both of which can be folded flat for posting. Although on most desk calendars the text leaves are square or rectangular, we can produce other shapes, including oddities such as a pyramid. |
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Re-moist gumming, also known as stencil gumming, lick & stick glue and 'that glue you use in mail outs'.
Re-moistenable gluing (to be accurate) is glue that can be applied to the sheet wet, dried, and then when re-moistened becomes sticky
again. This is not like latex glue or the adhesive found on 'Post-It' notes.
Remoist glue is applied in any shape or pattern required by a foam stencil on a roller. We can remoist glue sheets up to SRA2 on most
materials up to 250gsm.
We prefer the image to be gummed not to be on the perimeter of the sheet. For best results the imposition should allow the gummed
area to be towards the centre of the sheet, and where multiple images are to be gummed, the gummed are should all be on the same side of the sheet - i.e. images should be sheetwork or work & turn, but not work & tumble.
We charge gumming per sheet through the machine, not per image - for an A4 mailer, it is cheaper (and faster) for us to work 4up.
When planning gummed areas for mail back envelopes and the like, the heavier the material the more gum that is required.
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This has nothinh whatsoever to do with Ram Punching - the two activities are completley different.
Ram bundling is the process of compressing leaflets, or the like, to remove any excess air ready for handling by automated machinary
used by the large mailing houses.
The process is really quite simple. The finished print is put into a trough with a piece of hard board at each end, a pneumatic ram
compressed the text, and then the block is strapped in in plastic strap. The resultant 'log' is then ready to be inserted into the automated machines. |
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Tabs & dividers can be formed by either tab cutting or die cutting.
For larger runs die cutting is cheaper, and a greater variety of shapes of tab can be cut.
To strengthen the tab, the sheet can be laminated, preferably both sides, or if just the tab is required to be re-inforced the we can apply
'Mylar reinforcement' prior to tab cutting.
A group of tabs along a for edge is known as a 'gang' - tabs numbered 1 to 10 in 1 line would a '10 tab gang', but tabs numbered 1 to
10 as 1 to 5 and then 6 to 10 would be 2 x 5 tab gangs. We need to know this when we estimate the work to know how many tabs we are actually pricing: 1 x 10 gang tab has 5 tab positions, the 2 x 5 gang tab has 3 tab positions. |
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Given the right price, we will supply just about anything.
Realistically, we often get asked to supply backing board and plain sheets, whilst we do, many established printers may find that they
can get a better price from their regular paper merchants than we can/
We also supply the sundry bits for finishing including acetate sheets; mechanical fixings such as interscrews, rivets and eyelets; and
packing materials.
Through our partner campanies we can offer other services such as laminating and mounting where required.
We don't supply anything that is printed - i.e. ring binders or inserts etc, but are quite happy to insert finished print into such items.
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