The desktop Fastbind PUR/EVA XT in use

PUR binding continues to rise in popularity in the UK print sector. Rayprographics is the latest digital printer to sing its praises, having invested in the desktop Fastbind PUR/EVA XT. 

Edinburgh-based digital printer Rayprographics was doing a lot of work on satin silk papers, often with full ink coverage across the sheet, and there were problems using a purely EVA hot melt binder for this sort of work that prompted the company to invest in its first PUR perfect binder earlier this year.

The decision was made to upgrade the existing EVA binder – the Fastbind Elite XT – that it had bought from Ashgate Automation, to instead run Fastbind’s combined PUR and EVA perfect binder.

‘We decided to buy a PUR binder because customers were asking for it and we were having problems binding heavy coated digitally printed stock, especially when ink coverage was going all the way to the edge, where EVA glue was not sufficiently strong,’ said Gurney Ghatoray, managing director.

‘I contacted Lewis Price at Ashgate for advice because they had previously installed a Fastbind BooXter binder and a CaseMatic casemaker for our photobook department, and an Elite XT EVA perfect binder for general use,’ he continued.

Ashgate had recently introduced the Fastbind PUR/EVA XT, the first combined PUR/EVA compact table-top binder, which produces both soft and hard cover binding using a choice of standard EVA or PUR interchangeable hot melt tanks. Built on the same chassis as the Fastbind Elite XT, virtually any binding job up to SRA3 size or A4 landscape format and up to 45 mm thick can be accommodated by using the flexibility and superior binding strength of PUR glue. 

‘We didn’t need to look any further because this binder answered all our requirements and Ashgate offered to trade in our Elite XT, which made it an attractive proposition,’ he commented.  ‘We now have the best of both worlds – simply by exchanging the glue tanks, we have a PUR binder at a very affordable price and an EVA binder for regular jobs like binding  80 gsm uncoated stock. The PUR glue comes in small pellets which we store in vacuum sealed bags. We simply heat up what we need so there is virtually no waste.’

The binder uses an electronic adjustable temperature control with single operation when switching between glue types. It has a system for roughing and self-adjusts for book thickness from one to 1000 pages. There is a totally new type of rail mechanism for the glue application, which has large handles and glides smoothly over the book block with almost no resistance. 

Rayprographics has two Konica Minolta digital printers, an 8000 and a 6000. It binds photobooks, school year books, commercial print and high quality products, such as architects’ tenders. Run lengths vary from 12 to 200 copies on average.

The Fastbind PUREVA is used for general production work such as runs of books, technical manuals and tenders, rather than the more individual jobs such as photobooks, which would be expensive to bind PUR in any case. The company deals directly with most of its clients, including large companies in the finance and property sectors, but Mr Ghatoray reports that the new PUR binder has already attracted some trade work: a nearby finishing house without PUR capability sending a 100-book job through. 

‘In the few weeks that we have had the binder, we have had no problems at all in binding jobs on 170/150 gsm silk stock or those where the image is printed edge to edge. We are currently finishing a job which has A3 pages folded into the binder. This would have been difficult to do in the past but we are confident that the PUR glue will hold it secure,’ he added. 

It is all about confidence in fact. ‘It is another added-value service that we can offer confidently knowing that we have Ashgate’s support,’ he said. ‘The staff are happy to use it and they are confident in knowing that when they have finished a job it’s not going to come back.’