2012 Spring

Your Bindery Finishing: Humble Beginnings, Aggressive Growth

May 1, 2012

by Melissa DeDonder, The Binding Edge

Your Bindery Finishing was created from humble beginnings, inside the two-car garage of Luann and Curtis Wood, in Denver, Colorado. Luann, president of the company, had spent the previous 10 years working in prepress and operating a small press, and then she went to work for her grandfather’s family business, which sold presses and bindery equipment. “I enjoyed finishing the final product rather than running a press, and I liked the idea of running my own company, so my husband and I started Your Bindery Finishing in 1986,” she said.

The company began with minimal equipment [- a friction collator/bookletmaker, three-head spindle drill, table top folder and a small 25″ cutter. “In those early years, my mother worked as our outside sales representative, and our son helped out by working after school,” Wood said. In 1992, Wood’s youngest sister, Kirsten Hunt, joined the team.

By working many long hours and providing the local printers with a top-quality product and quick turnaround, in three short years Your Bindery Finishing outgrew its 400 sq. ft. of garage space and moved into a small industrial complex. This was the second of three moves that the company would make in its 26-year history.

Comprehensive service offerings under one roof

Today, Your Bindery Finishing occupies 13,000 sq. ft. of space and offers more finishing services in one location than any other trade bindery in Colorado, according to Luann Wood. The company accomplishes it all with just 11 employees, including three family partners – Luann, Curtis (company vice president) and Luann’s sister, Kirsten, who manages the staff and schedules production. The company also offers PUR and EVA perfect binding, three-knife trimming, collating flat sheets and folded signatures, multi-head drilling, folding and mechanical binding – double loop wire and plastic spiral coil.

The letterpress and diecutting services are offered by KSB Die Cutting, LLC, owned and operated onsite by Wood’s son, Aaron Williams. Williams officially began working in the bindery at age 12. As an adult, he managed Your Bindery Finishing’s letterpress operations until 2006, when he branched out to create his own company. KSB began with one Kluge and then expanded to eight old-style letterpresses and a Scott Ten Thousand tab cutter, which allows for a wide range of letterpress services including diecutting, foil stamping, embossing, index tab cutting and more. “Together, the two companies are capable of performing multiple trade services ‘all under one roof.’ We excel by providing high-end, professionally finished products. Our customers are assured of that,” Wood said.

Having all of these finishing services under one roof offers many advantages. “The biggest advantage for our customers is that we are saving them time and money by providing everything right here,” she explained. “For the printers, we provide peace of mind. They know that if their project is here and if there’s a question or problem, we’re going to call them.” In addition to the company’s printer-based customers, which include small commercial printers and large print houses both in and out of state, Your Bindery Finishing’s typical customers include self-publishers, schools, photographers and government agencies.

Wood said that customers are more than welcome to visit the company at any point during the production process. “We want our customers to feel comfortable at every step in the process, and we want them to look good. That’s our goal.” One of the ways that Your Bindery Finishing accomplishes this goal is by encouraging its employees to constantly ask themselves if they are producing a piece that they are proud of – a piece that they would be willing to pay for out of their own pocket.

Quality control rules the day

Quality is king at Your Bindery Finishing, and the company has many internal controls in place to help ensure top quality products. “Quality control begins with customer service. When an order is received, the customer service team works to ensure that all details have been included before the job moves into production, which saves time and money,” Wood said. Once a job is in production, quality control measures include procedures such as fanning the stock before a machine is loaded with paper to ensure that all stock is going the same direction; making sure the cut marks are in the right place prior to running the job; proofing all of the steps before cutting and measuring at least three times before cutting.

“We even proofread, and our employees have found many typos on materials. We’ve saved the customer money by catching these types of issues before the bindery process is complete – allowing the customer to decide how he/she wants to proceed,” Wood said. The company also encourages accurate counts. “If we’re short, then we need to call the customer. If we’re over, then we need to package it up and send it to the customer. Wood said that Your Bindery Finishing’s employees are trained to understand how their work is reflecting the customer’s professional image.

In addition to quality control measures, Your Bindery Finishing tries to incorporate lean manufacturing strategies as well. “We are constantly asking ourselves, ‘How can we handle this piece less? How can we move it through more efficiently?’ That’s something we’re always assessing,” Wood said. For the company’s print customers, fewer hands represent a savings on time and delivery costs – the printer’s drivers don’t have to go to so many locations, and the outside coordinators don’t have to make so many phone calls. “Essentially, several different services are handled by our company under one roof, rather than our customers having to deal with up to five different companies, which may be the case when using other trade binderies,” Wood said.

Managed growth

Another avenue of success for Your Bindery Finishing has been managed growth at a slow, steady pace. “In the beginning, we owned a few pieces of equipment and our niche was small runs, but as our reputation grew, our customers began pushing us to expand our services. With each service that we’ve added, we’d start small to perfect the new services from the inside out,” Wood said. “Since we started small, the 24- or 12-hour – and sometimes same day turnaround – that is demanded from today’s customers is nothing new for us. Our employees are excellent people, and I feed them a lot of oranges and coffee.”

Once the company got comfortable with its expansion of services, then it would seek to invest in more automated machinery to enhance these services. Over time, Your Bindery Finishing has added two large-format folders and has improved on its collators – they are all now vacuum-fed, high-speed and computer-run. Then, the company moved into mechanical binding – spiral and wire-o, investing in a few small table top machines to work with, as well as a high-speed punch and automatic wire inserters.

Through it all, perfect binding has continued to be the lion’s share of Your Bindery Finishing’s business for more than 20 years, currently representing 40 percent of the work load. The company can accommodate test books and press runs as small as one or two books, all the way up to large runs. Five years ago, Your Bindery Finishing made a conscious decision to begin using PUR polyurethane glue, and today the company believes it is still the only trade bindery in Colorado to offer this service.

Making the leap to PUR

Your Bindery Finishing ventured into PUR binding after working with a client who had produced some books on mountain climbing. After the books had been stored in sub-zero Colorado temperatures, they began to crack. “We rebound the books, but once again they were frozen in storage, and I felt horrible,” Wood said. She began researching PUR glue, which was supposed to hold up in a variety of conditions including extreme cold or hot weather, in addition to PUR’s attractive capabilities for use with enamel stocks and digitally produced work. Wood researched further by touring a bindery in London that was installing a PUR system at that time, and by talking to the company about why they were making the move to PUR binding.

When Wood returned, she completed additional research on US companies that were using PUR binding. “During the process, I discovered that when our customers used digital print stock it sometimes repelled our glue and, consequently, we were spending too much time wiping fuser oil off the books.” As the next step in the research process, Your Bindery Finishing sent test books to Standard Horizon, “which was very helpful, and then we toured a facility in Salt Lake City that was using PUR,” Wood said. “That helped us to make our final decision, and I’m very happy that we made the leap.”

Wood said that the cost of the PUR glue product itself is cost-prohibitive, which is what she believes has kept other companies from making the leap to PUR. “For our company, PUR is three times the cost of our other glue, and it does require more maintenance for the machines – the glue pot has to be drained daily. Some companies just don’t want to make these investments, but we have found that the outcome of the product – hands-down – outweighs the additional cost of glue and maintenance,” Wood said. In addition, by using PUR adhesive, Your Bindery Finishing has been able to push its binder to 1/16th of an inch, where most companies stop at 1/8th of an inch. “Having that PUR binder really has given us a lot of flexibility in our perfect binding services,” Wood said.

After perfect binding, collating for mechanical or perfect binding represents 25 percent of Your Bindery Finishing’s work, followed by mechanical binding of calendars, catalogs and training manuals, as well as folding brochures, direct mail pieces, flyers and promotional pieces. Both mechanical binding and folding represent 10 percent of the work, and booklets, finished cutting and drilling each represent five percent of the company’s current work load.

Awards and favorite projects

Although Your Bindery Finishing’s work speaks for itself, the company has entered PUR-bound books that it has produced into local printing awards competitions and has won many accolades in the last few years. A black and white photobook featuring breast cancer survivors called Cup Half Full won the 2010 Print Excellence Gold Award for superior craftsmanship in the Printing Industries of America Mountain States competition.

“Initially the book had been printed and perfect bound by one of our competitors, but the photographer rejected their work and came to us. It’s a wonderful piece – the photos in this book are just fantastic!” Wood said. The book features quotes from and photos of breast cancer survivors in their daily lives, with their families and sometimes even bravely sharing their scars or bald head for the world to see.

Another award-winning piece was a CD booklet project for an eclectic local band, Devotchka. The booklet features a soft-touch aqueous coating, with sheets that were ½-folded to give a double thickness. The printer who produced the piece also produced a companion hardcover box, and it won a Best of Show award from PIA Mountain States as well.

Looking to the future

Your Bindery Finishing is always looking to the future, and the company recently added short-run casebinding to its range of services, which will enable the company to produce yearbooks, family history projects and more. As far as its customer markets are concerned, the company plans to keep working primarily with the Denver market. In addition to her role as president, Wood serves as the company’s sales person and she maximizes her time by networking through many local organizations, including the Printing Industries of America (PIA) Mountain States chapter.

Other marketing initiatives include a quarterly postcard that is sent to both current and past customers, as well as a St. Patrick’s Day celebration for employees and customers. Approximately 100 people attend the event that is co-sponsored by the PIA Mountain States chapter, along with several other local vendors. It’s a chance for Your Bindery Finishing’s employees to mingle with customers and share their knowledge about their work. “The staff serves the food and really enjoys socializing with our customers. They are outfitted in dark green T-shirts to help advertise our services,” Wood said.

Wood also is involved with the Binding Industries Association (BIA) and participates in many workshops, conferences and continuing education opportunities. She believes that the knowledge that she brings back to her company about prepress and printing helps the company overall with the finishing side of the business. “This cross-over knowledge will allow us to keep the quality of our work high,” Wood said.

Above all these activities, Wood credits the company’s website as its greatest sales tool. She said that the goal for the website was to create a tool to educate customers and potential customers – especially the printers – about Your Bindery Finishing’s services and to save some time from having to make a lot of phone calls. “Our website and our reputation for top-quality work have helped us to reach new avenues of business. Printers and customers from across the country have found us online, especially because of our PUR services, and we’ve been able to get work that wasn’t available to us before, all because of our website.”

Wood sees this trend continuing well into the future. With its comprehensive finishing services, including PUR perfect binding, rigorous quality control measures, managed growth and creative marketing strategies, the future looks bright for Your Bindery Finishing.

On Demand Evolution

May 1, 2012

by: Jen Clark

Many of today’s digital printers require simple, automated solutions to produce short run, ultra-short run and personalized books, booklets or pamphlets while minimizing costs and maximizing productivity and profit. Since digital printing’s inception in the 1970s, the goal of many manufacturers has been to remove costly labor steps within the printing process, thus reducing job turnaround time. As print technology has changed, so too has the postpress element of the process, especially as the trend has moved to personalized print.

Variable data technology for print

And, while not every print job is suitable for variable data printing, an obvious fit for the technology is direct mail, said Marco Boer, vice president of I.T. Strategies, a consulting firm for digital printing vendors, printing press manufacturers, image processing software and silicon players and large user industries based in Hanover, MA. Often, the final recipient of a printed document is unknown. “With direct mail, we know who the intended recipient is.”

Boer said the first application of variable data printing took place when Mead Data, which ultimately became Kodak IJ Technologies, used continuous ink jet technology to variable print addresses and simple black text messages on direct mail with 100dpi print quality. “Today we can print variable data text, graphics and photos in full-color at resolutions upwards of 1,200dpi,” he said. “Aside from the printing hardware, the real breakthroughs have come from data mining and the controllers that process and prepare the data for printing at speeds upwards of 1,000 pages per minute on production printers.”

Often called ‘short runs,’ items printed digitally, or variably, require more preparation to make a message relevant for the reader. “The more relevant the message, the more valuable the document, and the higher the response and profit to the specifier,” Boer said, adding these short runs are no longer a specialty market.

“As professional print buyers disappear and the print budgets become part of the general marketing budgets, marketing and adverting executives are buying just the amount of print they need at the time they need it. The focus is shifting from squeezing down to the lowest cost per piece to eliminating inefficiencies and waste,” Boer said.

Until recently, digital printing has been constrained to relatively small projects because the presses capable of printing short runs have had limitations on linear print speed and print width. Now, both toner- and inkjet-based technologies have become faster and wider. “This allows the switch from imprinting variable text and messages on pre-printed offset shells to directly printing the entire piece digitally at the time of need in the quantities needed,” Boer said.

The evolution of digital printing technologies took a big leap forward recently when several manufacturers debuted new equipment at drupa, a large printing equipment exhibition in Düsseldorf, Germany, that takes place every four years.

Scodix, Ltd., a Roah Ha-ayin, Israel-based provider of digital print enhancement for the graphic arts industry with North American offices in Saddlebrook, NJ, introduced a new product line at drupa -the Scodix S Series. The Scodix S74 and S52 represent two sheet size formats, 52cm wide (20″) and 74cm wide (29″), are capable of printing on thicker substrates and provide a higher ScodixSENSE solution up to 250 microns. As a stand-alone solution compatible with offset, laminated sheets and digital print feeds, the press processes a wide range of substrates and formats. “Since Scodix’s enhancement products are modular and their new features are add-ons that can be fully integrated into customers’ existing Scodix systems, print service providers can easily and cost-effectively provide the ScodixSENSEexperience on the majority of graphic art requests,” said Kobi Bar, CEO and founder of Scodix.

Digital technology for inline/offline postpress

Heidelberg, a German-based manufacturer with North American offices in Kennesaw, GA, launched the Heidelberg Linoprint digital portfolio at drupa. Heidelberg highlighted the seamless integration of offset and digital printing with solutions for short and variable runs in the commercial and packaging printing sectors with the Heidelberg Linoprint C and Linoprint L series. “This way, our customers benefit from the close interlinking of offset and digital printing that print shops can use to boost their competitiveness further,” said Stephan Plenz, member of the management board responsible for Heidelberg equipment.

The Linoprint C series offers the Prinect digital print manager. Even without integration into a complete workflow, the solution provides users with efficient and transparent digital print workflow with a wide range of functions, such as variable data management, postpress with digital inline finishing systems and a document-oriented workflow. The Linoprint L (formerly iTS6oo from CSAT) is a drop-on-demand system for the economical production of complex short- to medium-sized label and film runs and applications with variable content. It is a solution that enables applications such as smart labels, security printing and traceable labels.

Highcon Systems Ltd., a Yavne, Israel-based manufacturer, introduced the world’s first production digital cutting and creasing machine, the Highcon Euclid. The machine uses precision laser optics and polymer technologies to transform cutting and creasing from an analog to a digital workflow, streamlining the finishing process. “Over the past two decades we have witnessed key areas of the supply chain becoming digital, but packaging finishing has remained analog,” said Aviv Ratzman, Highcon’s CEO. “Converters and their customers have been unable to benefit from the speed and flexibility that digital solutions could provide to finishing.”

The digital converting solution increases speed to market, eliminates costly production steps and reduces the carbon footprint of packaging production. The implementation of this new technology can drive new packaging opportunities for converters, packaging printers and brand owners.

Just prior to drupa, HP unveiled 10 digital printing systems, including the first 29″-format HP Indigo press. HP’s large format presses offer print service providers greater versatility, productivity and quality, as well as the ability to produce more high-value personalized or customized materials for their clients.

The new systems include three next-generation 29″-format HP Indigo presses capable of producing almost any commercial print job and a much broader range of packaging solutions; three updated models of the current HP Indigo portfolio with higher speeds in Enhanced Productivity Mode (EPM); three higher-speed HP Inkjet web press models featuring advanced ink and print-head technology; and a new HP high-speed imprinting solution for adding monochrome or full-color content to preprinted offset materials.

“We are fueling an unstoppable industry transformation from analog to digital printing,” said Christopher Morgan, senior vice president of Graphic Solutions Business for HP, while unveiling the new technologies in March.”Our new digital solutions strike at the core of the printing market and are able to meet the toughest requirements of world-class brands, publishers and print service providers.”

The HP Indigo 10000 Digital Press, for example, is a 29″ sheet-fed press that prints at speeds of 3,450 sheets per hour in full color and up to 4,600 sheets per hour in EPM. It combines HP Indigo offset-matching print quality with up to seven-color printing and duplex and substrate flexibility.

HP also announced two in- or near-line finishing options for the HP Indigo 10000. One, a signature folder from MBO, a German company with offices in Westampton, NJ, helps PSPs eliminate the finishing makeready spoilage typically required in bookbinding work and offers fully automated set-up for signature-fold work. The folder also gives PSPs a continuous productivity advantage by automatically reconfiguring to handle the different format of successive jobs printed.

The other new finishing solution, the Horizon SmartStacker, is a slit-merge-stack system that automatically produces collated, stacked book blocks ready for binding. Horizon, a Kyoto, Japan-based manufacturer, expects the SmartStacker to be commercially available in mid-2013. The Horizon system maintains tight-tolerance sheet-size accuracy at running speed while converting a 20×29″ sheet into up to 28 separate pieces of paper. Horizon and HP also are developing a new Finishing Line Controller (FLC) to control all set-up and operation of the SmartStacker. The FLC will communicate with the HP Indigo 10000 and the HP SmartStream Production Pro digital front end, and receive all set-up data via JDF so jobs can flow from pre-press to finishing with complete automation and no touch points.

“Horizon developed the entire (SmartStacker) system from white paper to working technology demonstration in about one year,” said Mark Hunt, the director of strategic alliances for Standard Finishing Systems, Andover, MA, which is the North American distributor for Horizon.

At its core, the SmartStacker allows printers to “scrub more labor (touch points) from the production process to realize true short-run digital efficiency and profits,” Hunt explained. “The Horizon SmartStacker can eliminate paper cutting and/or paper folding entirely. It also can be fitted with in-line saddlestitching or perfect binding, for example, to create a ‘white paper in, finished product out’ workflow. The SmartStacker presents a new and different way of thinking.”

This new way of thinking is changing the printing industry because short runs require companies to employ highly automated finishing systems. “It was the case not too many years ago that you’d spend 30, 45, 60 minutes changing over a folder from one job to another,” Hunt said. “I could justify that if I was running 100,000 units or 75,000 units.”

The folder would run for most of a shift and stop late in the day before the next shift came in. It would take another 45 minutes to change over to a new job, he explained. “Those days are gone. The run lengths are plummeting. Digital print is enabling the run lengths to plummet.”

Instead of doing two or three different jobs a day, where extra-long changeover can be justified, printers now might be doing 20 or 30 different jobs a day. “They can’t afford to chew up that time in changeover,” Hunt said. “They need highly automated, very accurate changeovers because in the digital world, every single copy in principal can be original. If I’m doing a personalized brochure or postcard, every single card is unique. I can’t afford to burn a bunch of them up in makeready.”

Horizon offers icon-based color touchscreens, allowing operators to select the desired finishing style, input the dimensions of the piece of paper that will be finished quickly and easily, the machine will changeover to the guide settings and stops. “Everything that has to be changed to get the finished product is done internally without operator intervention,” Hunt said.

The result is no wasted product. “I’ve got zero tolerance for waste,” he said. “And I’ve accomplished my set-up in a matter of 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes.”

Finishing, Boer noted, has long been a conundrum for printers employing digital technologies. “Do you finish inline to get ultra efficiency and automation, near line to get flexibility or offline? For certain applications like book printing, inline is the way to go because the final output is relatively consistent in size/shape,” he explained. “But with direct mail, the whole point is to standout, which means you don’t want every piece to look similar.”

“Ultimately a lot comes down to a print shop’s personal preference, existing infrastructure and the shop’s aspirations,” Boer said.

Following Up: Use Voicemail to Your Advantage

May 1, 2012

by: TJ Tedesco, Grow Sales, Inc.

If you’re like most salespeople, you regard voicemail as your biggest enemy, the toughest of all barriers to making a sale. That doesn’t have to be the case! Don’t view voicemail as a quick trip to a dead end. Instead, use it to create a new path to a successful partnership.

Use your information

One key element of a successful voicemail message is probably right in front of you whenever you make a sales call. If you’ve talked with your prospect before, you should have extensive notes detailing these conversations. Use this information as your message’s focus: “Hi Joe, this is Bob from ABC Bindery. I’m interested to see how that Anderson project turned out. As I said when we met last week, I have a few ideas on how we can help you with similar opportunities.”

Using detailed information in your messages indicates to your prospects that you’re interested in their business and their success, and that you have ideas that may help them. It also does wonders to differentiate you and your company from the many canned messages your prospect receives.

Your information may go beyond what you and the prospect discussed. Did you spot a lure collection in your prospect’s office? If you share their interest in fishing, work it into your message: “I noticed you’re interested in fishing. I know a great spot on the bay.” Keep in mind that a mutual interest should be genuine. If you know nothing about fishing, don’t fabricate a connection. Simply expressing interest in your prospect’s hobby may be enough to differentiate yourself and earn a return phone call.

Strategic messages

Anyone who spends a lot of time calling prospects and customers will encounter voicemail. Making voicemail work for you depends not only on what you say, but how you say it and how you follow up afterwards. Here are a few more tips:

Don’t ask for callbacks – unsolicited calls are seldom returned, and follow-up calls are often tabled while prospects address other issues. Why bother asking them to call you back in the first place? Instead of concluding a voicemail message with some variant of “Please call me back,” say, “We can help your company. I’ll call you Tuesday afternoon to discuss the details.” Then – and most importantly – keep the appointment. Before long, you will differentiate yourself as a sales rep that makes and keeps promises.

Keep messages short – The only thing worse than wading through 10 voicemails is 10 voicemails that ramble and don’t seem to end. Keep messages brief and to the point – 20 seconds is a good rule-of-thumb. It may sound silly, but drafting a message beforehand and rehearsing it a few times can prepare you for either a strong conversation or voicemail.

Use negative check-offs – When you’ve been held at bay by a gatekeeper, consider setting an appointment via voicemail “negative checkoff.” Here’s how: “Hi, Ms. Prospect, this is Bob at XYZ Bindery calling. Hopefully, you’ve received my previous messages as well as the materials I’ve sent you. I think we have a great solution for your specific binding and finishing needs. Unless I hear from you, I’ll stop by on Tuesday morning to talk further. If this time doesn’t work, please call me at 555-1212.”

If the prospect doesn’t call back, on Tuesday, you can credibly tell the gatekeeper that you said you’d drop by, increasing the likelihood of a face-to-face meeting. On the other hand, if you get a call to cancel, at least you’re on the phone with the decision-maker. What you do with that opportunity is up to you!

Voicemail often may seem like the road to nowhere, but it can become your golden path to sales success. Use it properly, and it can help differentiate you and your company, reinforcing to your prospect that you have ideas that can help solve a problem. Prospects may get to know you only by your messages. It’s your job to use that opportunity to build the partnership path directly to their door.

T.J. Tedesco is team leader of Grow Sales, Inc, a company that has served the marketing, public relations and sales growth needs of post press companies since 1996. He is the author of eight books, including Binding, Finishing & Mailing: The Final Word and the newly-released Direct Mail Pal 2012. T.J. can be reached at 301.294.9900 or tj@growsales.com. Grow Sales, Inc.’s website is www.growsales.com.

Metal and Plastic Rings

May 1, 2012

by Jen Clark

No doubt everyone has used a three-ring binder at least once in his or her lifetime. Yet little has changed in the binder’s design since the first patent for the device was filed in 1854.

According to the curator of the Early Office Museum in London, Henry T. Sisson of Providence, RI, filed patents for binders that would hold loose leaf paper, but the notebooks didn’t go to market until nearly 20 years later. Since then, various people have offered their take on binder design, but the original concept remains the same: a folder with spring-loaded clamps that will hold and organize documents.

Typically, the spring-loaded clamps, otherwise known as ring metals, are made of highly polished nickel-plated steel and are often circular or D-shaped, while others utilize rods to contain the paper. Some manufacturers now are offering plastic three-ring binder mechanisms in a variety of colors.

Spiral Binding, a James Burns Company in Totowa, NJ, is one such company. Their mechanisms are manufactured to hold standard, 3-hole, 8 1/2×11″ sheets and are sold without binder covers. The plain “spines” – available in both metal and plastic – allow customers to create their own custom binder covers or hold papers without the bulk of a cover.

Are plastics gaining ground?

Most definitely, says Michael Bossard, integrated marketing manager for Spiral James Burn. “Customers are always looking for ways to make their product stand-out. Plastic allows for more color choices, however, the great majority of what is sold is still metal.”

While plastic ring mechanisms have been around for a number of years, Bossard said Spiral James Burn has been offering them for about one year. The rings offered by Spiral James Burn come in blue, black, grey and white and offer the benefits of metal, as well as the versatility of color. Each ring functions like a traditional metal ring, snapping open in one smooth motion and locking when closed, he explained.

“The rings are manufactured with an ABS resin,” Bossard said. “When molded, it forms into a very durable product with a smooth finish. This material also ensures that the rings won’t rust and makes them archival-safe.”

There aren’t many cost benefits for choosing plastic over metal, he added. “The plastic mechanisms are more expensive, mainly because metal is mass-produced and essentially a commodity at this point in the product life-cycle.”

Does the size of the project affect the type of ring that should be used?

That really depends on the size of the project, Bossard said. “Ultimately metal can support more weight, so for particularly large projects metal will hold up better. If the application requires a larger ring size, then plastic would not be the best option.” When a customer has a larger ring size requirement that usually means there’ll be more paper in the binder and “more paper means more weight,” he said. “In any case, if the contents are heavy, this would be a case to consider using metal rather than plastic.”

Specialty Loose Leaf, Holyoke, MA, offers ring metal in a variety of shapes and sizes to accommodate consumer need. Tom Portenstein, the company’s vice president of sales, said everyone always strives to improve or reduce costs. “The new wave is a tendency to find alternative materials other than steel, but to date, we have not worked with plastics.”

He said most of the rings Specialty Loose Leaf produces are for large-capacity binders. “Plastic rings could not withstand the weight in these larger capacities. Steel offers greater strength and stability for a full range of ring binder options,” he added.

In addition to the standard round and D-shaped rings, Specialty Loose Leaf offers trapezoid, elliptical and arch rings. Round rings offer the easiest page-turn and accessibility, while D-rings accommodate more pages. Trapezoid and elliptical rings are similar in that they offer large-capacity storage, but pages turn slightly easier with the elliptical rings since there are no angles. The arch ring combines the performance of post-binder archiving with the ease of loose leaf updating and can hold over 1,200 sheets of paper.

“Many of the companies that we get repeat orders from prefer to produce their publications in a ring binder rather than a perfect bound or case bound book,” Portenstein said. “Loose leaf publications can be updated. Once the information in a bound book has changed, the entire book needs to be replaced.”

Although Sepcialty Loose Leaf maintains strong relationships with Asian ring suppliers, many of the rings used in its custom products are produced in-house. “From what I have been told, we are the only domestic binder manufacturer that can still make its own rings. Because we still manufacture a good amount of rings that are used in our products, project lead time is cut considerably since we don’t have to worry about lengthy shipping times from foreign suppliers,” Portenstein added.

There has been an explosion of environmentally friendly options for binders recently. What about the ring metal or plastic utilized in binders?

Spiral James Burn’s Bossard said most ring metals are made from recycled steel and are environmentally-friendly, but “we think it is important for customers to question the vendors and their green practices as much as the components of the product itself.” Spiral recently installed one of the largest solar energy systems in New Jersey at its corporate headquarters. “We have proactively implemented many environmentally-friendly practices,” Bossard explained.

Portenstein noted that many environmentally friendly materials now are going into binders. “One big feature that is an environmentally friendly option is the ability to screw in the mechanisms,” he said, adding, at Specialty Loose Leaf, that kind of specialty mechanism would need to be requested in the quote since it isn’t a standard feature. “Basically, you screw the mechanisms into the binder, which makes them reusable. When you’re finished with your binder, you can remove and reuse or recycle the mechanism.”

A company in Seattle, WA, was built on the concept of reusable ring metal for binders. Guided Products (formerly known as ReBinder), offers 17 fully recyclable three-ring binders to consumers. Its ReBinder was designed to tell a great story about its user, while giving customers the ability to reuse the binders. The binders even can be upgraded from project to project, while helping to sustain natural resources.

“Replacement covers can be purchased separately at a fraction of the cost of buying a new binder,” Brad Hole, chief sustainability officer, said.

What makes a reusable ring binder different from traditional three-ring binders?

“Unlike most binders, everything we do is American made, should cost the same as traditional products, should be available through the same catalogs and are made of responsible materials that don’t require a landfill,” Hole explained. “In addition, we have a proprietary labeling system that lets a user customize the ReBinder instantly, so when someone sees our products in use, it delivers a powerful story about the user,” he said. “It’s also nice that by removing two screws with a Phillips-head screw driver, the ring metal and cover can be separated and recycled.”

The removable ring metal has been a feature of the ReBinder product since the company’s inception in 2003, when Hole was working at a technology business. “Every year, a new vinyl binder would arrive from the different manufacturers we represented,” he said. “Soon, there was a collection of vinyl three-ring binders in our back room that we would reuse for accounting paperwork, but would eventually be headed to the landfill.”

After getting favorable reviews at the SHOPA (School, Home & Office Products) trade show, the company was formed and chose to launch with corrugated cardboard as the cover because it was the easiest to recycle. The company began production for three sizes of ReBinders in 2004, using standard ring metals with proprietary hardware. “An important factor was that the products would have to be durable and well-made with domestically sourced materials that could be easily recyclable,” he said.

Initial clients included those in the green building industry. “Green/LEED-certified building was just starting to break ground, and architects and builders were in need of our products to help convey their responsible message,” Hole said. “Delivering a proposal in a plastic or vinyl binder diluted that message.”

“The green building industry really helped get ReBinder products out there and in front of important decision makers,” he said. “Other industries were soon to follow.”

What is the proper way to recycle ringed binders, either plastic or metal?

Portenstein and Hole agreed that before recycling a binder, the ring metal should be removed, but offered different ideas on how to accomplish the task – especially if the metal is permanently fixed to the spine.

Portenstein suggests using an X-Acto™ knife or box cutter to slice the metal from the binder’s spine, but only if it is riveted or glued in place. “More than half of the binders out in the field are riveted and not screwed in,” he said.

ReBinder’s metal can be removed with a Phillips-head screw driver. “This makes both the cover and the ring metal recyclable,” Hole said. “Any facility or curb side recycling service that accepts ferrous metals can take ring metal, but it would have to be completely removed from the binder’s cover.”