Your Book Binding Guide
At Route 1 Print, we pride ourselves on being the best when it comes to supporting our resellers with book printing.
In 2021, we proudly welcomed Kingsbury Press, a renowned name in the world of luxurious book printing. This acquisition marked the beginning of a new chapter, catapulting our book binding capabilities to new heights.
Our cutting-edge technology now boasts state-of-the-art machinery, including the Kolbus KM600 and Muller Martini Ventura MC200, complemented by our existing innovative presses such as the Landa S10P. This empowers us to deliver unmatched quality and aesthetics in book binding, setting us apart from the competition.
Explore our guide to delve into the intricacies of our book binding techniques. Each method is meticulously detailed, providing insights into its unique benefits and the advanced machinery involved.
Perfect Bound
Looking for highly premium and durable books at an affordable price? Perfect bound books are the ideal solution.
Renowned for their sleek and professional appearance, these books offer durability and can accommodate a higher page count of 300 printed pages, making them a fantastic choice for various printing needs such as catalogues, novels, or magazines with a high page count.
The process of creating a perfect bound book starts with the print, depending on run length, we will print short runs on our digital HP Indigo Press or long run, on our Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106.
Next, the print goes to our state-of-the-art Kolbus KM 600 which is coupled with ZU 832 gathering machine and HD 143.P three-knife trimmer to form a streamline process. We carefully collate pages using our ZU 832 gathering machine ensuring the books are in the correct order ready to be bound.
Then, the Kolbus KM 600 applies adhesive, mills, and notches the spine, guaranteeing a flawless book block bound. We're proud that we only use Planamelt adhesive for its high quality, ensuring a fault-free and superior spine. This cost-effective adhesive demonstrates remarkable resilience to both high and low temperatures, requiring only minimal application compared to EVA adhesive.
The final touch comes from the HD 143.P Three-Knife Trimmer, our expert trimmer ensures each book is sized and trimmed to perfection before making its way to the conveyor belt, ready to be securely packaged and dispatched.
Choose between a hard cover featuring 2500 mic greyboard wrapped in 150gsm silk and your preferred lamination, or embrace a soft cover with a slightly heavier stock that your inners.
Don't forget you can enhance your client's book with options like foiling or Spot UV for an extra touch of luxury.
Stapled (Saddle Stitched)
When cost-effective, quick, and professional print solutions are needed, saddle stitched booklets are an extremely resource for print resellers.
This binding method not only delivers a hassle-free option for clients with projects demanding swift turnaround but also upholds a commitment to high quality. Adaptable to accommodate 8 to 56 printed pages, these booklets prove ideal for magazines, pamphlets, and small booklets.
Our full range of cutting-edge equipment is utilised in the production of stitched booklets, ensuring that your client's artwork reaches its full potential.
Our arsenal includes two high-output Heidelberg XL106 B1 litho presses with LE-UV drying and the nano-graphic Landa S10p, providing unparalleled flexibility and speed for any print run.
The stitching process is executed on the reliable Horizon StitchLiner Mark III, guaranteeing the high-quality bound booklets you can proudly present to your clients.
Operatives will first feed 4-page sections into the collation towers on the Mark III, moving them to the accumulator before the crucial stitching phase. Once stitched, our three-knife trimmer precisely cuts off any excess, ensuring a sharp and sleek finish.
Our formidable saddle-stitching department boasts four Stitchliner Mark IIIs and two StitchLiner 5500, equipping our production factory with plenty of capacity for delivering high-quality stapled products.
Diversity is key in our selection of stock for saddle-stitched books, offering your clients a range of choices to achieve their desired booklet outcome. Plus, we extend options for lamination and embellishment, including soft-touch velvet lamination, spot UV and foiling, adding that extra touch of luxury to the final product.
Wiro-Bound
Wiro-binding stands out as one of the most cost-effective and user-friendly book binding techniques. In this method, a spiral or wire coil is threaded through perforated holes along the booklet's spine.
With the capacity to accommodate up to 120 printed pages, along with the added benefit of being able to rotate a full 360 degrees and lie flat, wiro-binding proves to be an excellent choice for notebooks, calendars, and manuals. This unique feature not only makes it easy to write on but also ideal for traveling.
To kick off the production process, we initiate by printing pages in pre-collated sets. Depending on the run length, we leverage the capabilities of either our HP Indigo presses or our Landa S10, offering you a diverse range of inner paper options and paginations.
The collated pages then undergo the punching process in our Renz AP360. Once the die is precisely set to the required dimensions, the pages are punched, preparing them for the next step.
Then our Renz ABL 500 Wiro Binder takes charge, delicately inserting wire through the punched holes to craft the final booklet. Our investment in the Renz ABL 500 was a strategic move to enhance production capacity, allowing us to more than double our capabilities thanks to its efficient automation.
Once the books are expertly bound, they make their way to our dispatch team for secure packaging and prompt dispatch.
Our wide range of stocks and sizes, along with flexible turnarounds, ensures that you can discover the perfect wiro-bound book solution for your clients.
Layflat
If your client is looking for a premium book to showcase high-quality images, look no further than our Layflat books. It's a type of bookbinding that allows the pages to open flat without the spine of the book impacting the detailed imagery on the double page spread, allowing for greater design flexibility and a more immersive reading experience.
Layflat books are perfect for showcasing images such as in wedding albums, coffee table books, and real estate presentations.
We accomplish this through a special binding technique that uses a flexible adhesive to attach the pages to the cover, allowing the book to lie flat when open, persisting with greater durability and strength than a traditional thread sewn book.
Our choice of printing presses for layflat binding is tailored to meet the specific requirements of our clients. If the order is for fewer than 250 books, we suggest opting for our cost-effective and efficient HP Indigo, ideal for short runs.
On the other hand, if your client seeks top-notch litho printing for their layflat books, we use the Heidelberg XL106 to ensure high-quality results.
We use a combination of traditional bookbinding techniques and modern printing technology to create layflat books that are both appealing and durable.
We firstly collate the pages on the Kolbus KM600. Our layflat manufacturing process utilises the Kisun DB440, a dual feeding system that applies adhesive to the paper sheets.
The special adhesive we use for our layflat books is Alfast 654, which bonds all pages. After all pages have been securely bonded, our operatives will position the book block into the compressor, ensuring the book is of the highest quality.
Our layflat books range has a wide range of options to choose from stocks to special finishes, plus with the ability to go up an impressive 300pp page count.
You can choose between a hard cover featuring 2500 mic greyboard wrapped in 150gsm silk and your preferred lamination, or embrace a soft cover with a slightly heavier stock than your inners.
Additionally, we can cater to your clients' preferences with non-stock materials, cloth covers, single foil, spot UV, and deboss options to really make the possibilities endless.
Thread Sewn
This classic binding technique is one of the oldest forms of bookbinding which remains to have the highest level of durability and quality making it an opportunity to cater to clients who value premium craftsmanship.
Thread-sewn books offer a flatter profile compared to binding methods such as perfect bound books allowing it to effectively incorporate double-page image spreads without interruption making it a best choice for clients who are printing books such as high quality novels, catalogues, brochures and magazines.
We utilise our two Muller Martini Ventura MC200 machines for thread-sewn book production We first organise the pages into sections on the Kolbus KM600. The pages are then fed into the hopper feeder, and suction cups transport them through the auxiliary saddle.
Next a ASIR camera which is integrated into the machine identifies and highlights any faults or inaccuracies on the outer screen during each section's pass through the auxiliary saddle. This detection ensures consistent high quality and prompts correction before the sewing process.
The sewing process involves utilising blow air and an active thread cutting system. We first punch the holes in the paper, then sewing needles pull the thread through alternate holes with a burst of air, forming a loop in the slotted lever. The hook needles then catch the loop, and both the hook needle and sewing needle simultaneously pull the thread up, resulting in the creation of a thread chain.
The thread-sewn sections then progress to the Kolbus KM600, where the book's cover is glued to the spine using Kleiberit 743.7 EVA adhesive. Finally, the books are finely trimmed on the HD 143.P and ready for dispatch.
We provide an array of options for our thread-sewn books, including a wide selection of stocks and finishes.
Thread sewn books commonly feature a hardcover, which is created using 2500 mic greyboard wrapped in 150gsm silk and your preferred lamination, or you can opt for a soft cover with a slightly heavier stock than your inners.
We can also customise your order with non-stock materials, cloth covers, single foil, spot UV, and deboss to the case, catering to your clients' preferences.