Even in today’s increasingly digital world, paper is an essential office supply. There are still important documents to file and critical correspondence to send out. Copies of high importance, such as presentations, company overviews, user manuals, and business plans, must be easy to access, track and organize without creating a mess. Binding these documents allows them to be accessed more efficiently without having to worry about sheets of paper flying out. Moreover, generating well-bound documents project a competent and professional image for your company, which can help develop trust from your customers.
Types of Documents That May Need a Binding Machine
Investing in a binding machine helps you secure your documents. However, the impact of well-bound documents goes beyond securing and organizing documents. Well-bound documents create a robust image for your company and help you manage documents when you carry them around or if you need to share information with your customers. As for specific documents that need binding, here are just a few:
Company Presentations: Having these bound helps create a professional image for your company.
Brochures: Organizing multiple-page sales pitches helps convey how seriously your business seeks to serve your clients. Bound brochures also help present your products as high quality and premium.
Business Proposals: These documents typically take ten or more pages. An organized and comprehensive business proposal helps your potential partner build a good impression of your company.
Operational Handbooks and User Manuals: Training materials are essential in building an efficient team. Having bound documents allows your employees to keep user manuals organized so that they can serve as a reference for an extended time.
Internal Business Plans: A business plan is the “bible” of your business. Goals and strategies are set on paper to ensure the company’s direction. Such an essential document needs to be bound as a reference, especially for crucial meetings.
Tax Returns and Legal Documents: Essential documents, such as tax returns and legal documents, require care during storage. To avoid losing them, these should be neatly organized for quick referencing.
Annual Reports: Annual reports are critical reports that require archiving. Annual reports must be kept to track your company’s growth effectively.
Velobind, Coil Bind, Wire Bind, and Spring Bind: Which Is Best For Your Office Application?
There are four top-rated binding options available on the market today. Each type of binding has its pros and cons. However, especially for small offices, each can stand as your go-to binding machine and method for all your document filing needs.
GBC Coil Binding Machines
Coil binding is a punch-and-bind process that uses a plastic spiral coil to secure a document. In a coil binding process, the pages are first punched. A machine, or a “finisher,” inserts the coil by spinning it through the holes until it covers the spine’s length. Finally, the coil ends are crimped to secure the coil by preventing it from spinning from the document. The simplicity of the coil binding operation allows you to bind up to 100 papers with automatic coil finishers.
The pages in coil-bound documents can be rotated 360 degrees and lay flat. The coil itself is very rugged and flexible and won’t easily deform. As long as the ends are crimped, there will be little risk of the pages flying out. Pages in a coil-bound book may be edited after destroying the coil. However, you will need to place a new set of coils after replacing the contents of your coil-bound documents.
Coil-bound applications are ideal for most binding applications, especially brochures, company presentations, operational handbooks and manuals, and final documents that won’t require revisions, such as annual reports for filing.
The main disadvantage of coil-bound documents is their inability to be customized because there needs to be more space in the coil to allow for custom printing. Moreover, coil-binding is not intended for binding hardcover books.
Coil Binding Options:
- GBC CI12 Electric Color Coil Finisher
With a binding capacity of 265 12″ pages, the GBC CI12 is your heavy-duty coil binding solution. The robust color coil finisher allows multiple spine-size settings for quicker operation. The machine has adjustable cutting and crimping functions to allow secure copies. A lever operates the crimper, which ensures smooth and easy crimping.
- GBC CC2700 Electric Color Coil Inserter
For medium-sized offices, the GBC CC2700 automatic coil inserter has 12 dual-action rollers for increased speed and accuracy of coil insertion. The coil inserter has a binding capacity of 265 sheets measuring up to 12″ each. The machine has a slot allocated for a crimping tool.
- GBC MP2000 Single Pattern Punch
Coil binders require punchers. GBC provides the most high-value puncher available through the MP2000 Single Pattern Punch. With disengageable pins and a vertical open throat, lining up and punching documents is easy, even for unique paper sizes.
GBC Wire Binding Machines
Wire binding is similar to coil binding in its utilization of a punch-and-bind process. However, instead of coils, a twin-loop metal wire secures wire-bound documents. In the wire binding process, documents are first punched with a 2:1 or a 3:1 pattern. The wire is hung on a wire snatch before initializing the insertion process. The pages are then inserted onto the rungs. Finally, the wire is crimped at the ends to prevent pages from falling out.
Like coil-bound documents, pages in a wire-bound document can be rotated 360 degrees and lay flat. Wires are robust materials. Durable punches that can punch through thicker paper types, such as card stock, vinyl, polyester, and other binding materials, make it suitable for the same applications as coil binders. The wire material presents this method as more durable than coil binding.
Like coil binding, wire binding is not designed for hard-bound books. Editing or modifying pages in wire-bound books requires destroying the spine.
Wire Binding Options
- GBC MC12 Manual WireBind Finisher
The GBC MC12 Manual WireBind finisher is manually-operated with a universal handle, making binding easy in any setup or situation for smaller offices. The binder has a 250-sheet capacity and can bind 12″ documents. Its small footprint allows it to fit most workstations.
- GBC W15 WireBind Binding Machine
The GBC W15 presents an affordable option for wire binding with its QickStep graphic instructions printed on the loading area allowing for quick use even for uninitiated users. With a 125-sheet capacity, it can cover most binding requirements. An integrated puncher can punch 15 sheets at a time.
- GBC TL2900 Electric WireBind Finisher
The GBC TL2900 Electric WireBind Finisher presents an excellent option for large offices requiring a heavy-duty wire binder. This wire bind finisher has a 250-sheet capacity and can process documents faster than most wire binding options. Its dual load-and-crimp mechanism eliminates the need to move the document for loading. All you need to do is place the spine, load the paper, and close the document with a touch of a button.
GBC VeloBind Machines
In Velobinding, the punch-and-bind process uses plastic 11-pin Velobind strips to secure the document. Pages are first punched. Next, the first half of the Velobind strip is inserted into the machine with its ends pointing upwards. The punched pages are stacked in batches. Once the back cover is applied, the second half of the Velobind strip is inserted on the cover. The binding process commences. Instead of crimping, a hot knife cuts excess material and fuses the ends of the Velobind strip to create a tight bind.
VeloBound documents are the toughest binding method compared to other softcover binding methods. Unlike coil-bound or wire-bound documents, Velobound documents can’t be laid flat with pages rotated at 360 degrees. However, VeloBinding is ideal for binding hardcover books, making them ideal for compiling finalized annual reports, legal documents, tax returns, and books. If you intend to protect Velobound documents from being wet, you need to place extra protection on the spine because the edges of the spine are more exposed compared to either coil or wire-bound documents.
Because VeloBind books are robust and durable, editing them can be challenging. Though some VeloBind machines provide an editing function, editing will still require destroying the VeloBind strip.
VeloBind Options
- GBC VeloBind System One Manual Punch and Electric Finisher
You can create professionally-made books for small offices using the GBC VeloBind System One Manual Punch and Electric Finisher. With a 250-page capacity, this all-in-one punch and bind system conveniently punches your document and aligns the pages to prepare them for electric VeloBinding finishing.
- GBC VeloBind System Two
For medium-sized offices, the GBC VeloBind System Two presents a viable option for binding up to 500 pages in a single document. It has an automatic electric push-button function and automatically reverses to prevent paper jams during binding.
- GBC VeloBind System Three
This heavy-duty VeloBind machine can bind up to 750 pages in a single document for large offices. The GBC VeloBind System Three has a pressure bar that lifts and returns to indicate the completion of the binding process. The machine can take on a thinner or thicker document in a few simple steps. For ease of operation, you can use either a foot pedal or a button for punching.
- GBC VeloBind System Four Bind Finisher
The GBC VeloBind System Four is a heavy-duty VeloBind machine that features an editing function to debind the document and revise sheets. As a VeloBinder, it has a robust capacity of 750 sheets and can take on a wide range of document sizes. Its easy-to-use function makes this machine the ultimate VeloBind tool for any office.
GBC Comb Binding Machines
Comb binding utilizes a 19-ring plastic comb to keep sheets together in a document. First, the pages are punched. The punched pages are inserted into the tines. The tines of the comb are stretched open with a comb opener. The opener releases the comb to relax it, allowing its natural circular shape to secure the document.
The comb’s shape does not allow documents to lay flat and rotate pages 360 degrees. However, customizing and editing pages is more straightforward because this method is the only binding method that allows replacing pages without destroying the binding material.
The spine of comb-bind documents is solid, thereby providing some protection for the edges of the book from the elements. Most documents that are coil-bound and wire-bound are also applicable for comb-binding. Moreover, you can customize the book’s spine, write on it, or place stickers, making them ideal for filing on vertical cabinets.
Comb-binding is perfect for most smaller documents. However, because of the flexibility of the comb, thicker documents or heavily-handled documents are not recommended to be comb-bound. Additionally, comb-binding is not ideal for binding hardcover books because the nature of the binding material is impermanent.
Comb Binding Options
- GBC CombBind C12 Binding Machine
The GBC CombBind C12 Binding Machine presents an affordable option for most offices for CombBinding documents. With a manual function, it can bind up to 225 sheets and has an added punching capacity of 12 sheets. Its well-designed layout allows for laying sheets flat, thereby aligning them before binding.
- GBC CombBind C210E Electric Binding Machine
The GBC CombBind C210E Electric Binding Machine can easily bind 330 sheets and punch 20 sheets for medium-sized offices. Its punching function is electrically-assisted, quickly making punches for up to 20 sheets.
- GBC CombBind C450E Precision Punch Electric Binding System
For more challenging projects requiring 500 sheets for a 2″ maximum spine size, the GBC CombBind C450E Precision Punch Electric Binding System does the job. This powerful, all-in-one binding system allows easy punching and binding neatly, which suits all presentations. This system uses a paper separator that divides stacks into the proper thicknesses, allowing more effortless punching.
- GBC CombBind C800PRO Electric Binding Machine
For heavy-binding users, this finishing powerhouse delivers high capacity and durability to take on any comb-binding task. The GBC CombBind C800PRO has adjustable pins to punch any size of document up to 12″ wide. With a 500-sheet capacity, the C800PRO is electrically assisted with a foot switch to make binding documents easier.
GBC Binding Machines From TBS Business Solutions Are All You Need for Professional-Looking Presentation and Filing Needs
Each binding method made by GBC provides your office with numerous advantages in keeping your files organized and generating documents for presentation and marketing purposes. You can select from a vast range of binding machines and binding methods that will suit the specific needs of your office. To learn more about the price and availability of GBC binding machines available at TBS Business Solutions, visit our page for binding machines, or call us at (888)-542-9888. We also have a broad range of office supplies available on our site.