Choosing the Right Binding Machine for You

Wire binding Rapidly becoming the most popular choice for binding documents in todays modern offices. Wire binding is both practical and attractive, giving a professional finish to your document. The versatility of wire binding allows your document to lie nice and flat whether opened or closed and turns 360 degrees for easy reading!
Plastic Comb Binding The advantage of Plastic Comb binding is that it is slightly cheaper, easy to use and can be undone if necessary to add, remove or change pages, but may not be as robust as wire binding.
Spiral Binding The new look sprial binding! Looks great and puts that professional touch to your hard worked on corporate reports. Also great for note books and DIY creations.
Thermal Binding Provides a sleek professional finish to your important documents. Effectively gluing the pages to the spine keeps the pages tightly fastened and can be re-opened and re-closed.

Important Points to Consider when Purchasing a Binding Machine    

What look do you require and what is the purpose for your bound documents?

Before purchasing a binding machine, think about how you would like your documents to look once they are bound. Each method of binding will give your document a different finish.   

Different methods of binding for different applications

How many documents will you be binding per day?

Electric or Manual Binding?

You will want to buy a machine that will work with the volume you need to bind. If you are only binding a few small documents a day, a low volume (8-12 sheet punching capacity) manual binder should be adequate.

However, if you will be binding several dozen documents every week you will want something with a larger punching capacity (12 -20 sheets punching capacity). And if you will be binding hundreds of documents, you will most likely want a machine with an electric punch that can punch several sheets of paper at once.

Of course electric binding machines are more expensive than manual binders initially, but if your office has a heavy load it will save you hours on manual labour.

We hope this information has been of some assistance to you. Please do not hesitate to call our office with any information that you may have regarding any of your business machine enquiries. Phone: (02) 9016 4307 or email sales@unicorn.net.au

Why Does my Office Need a Binding Machine?

Binding provides a stylish presentation giving a professional finish to all your hard work. Binding also assists in keeping your valuable documents organised and easily stored.

Glossary of Terms

Punch or Die - The cutting mechanism in the binder that punches the paper. Some binders have interchangeable dies which can change from plastic binding to wire binding or a choice of different hole profiles (the pitch).

Cancellation Pins - Some binding machines have disengaging pins. This gives the operator control over how close to the edge of the document is to be punched and easily punch A5 paper.

Margin Depth – Some binding machines have a margin adjustment option, others have fixed margin depth. Margin adjustment allows the operator to choose the depth of punch from the side of the document.

Pitch - Pitch is the profile or style of holes your machine punches. Different binding machines have a different pitch. The spacing of the holes your machine punches depends on the pitch. 3:1 punches 3 holes per inch and 2:1 punches 2 holes per inch.

What is 3:1 and 2:1 Wire Binding?

3:1 wire simply means that the machine will punch three holes per inch. 3:1 pitch is required for thinner sized documents and accordingly have smaller hole sizes than 2:1. You can only use 3:1 wire with a machine that punches 3:1.  A 3:1 pitch wire binds a stack of paper as small as 2 sheets of standard 80gsm paper and up to 120 sheets of standard 80gsm paper 

2:1 Wire machines will punch two holes per inch 2:1 pitch is required for thicker sized documents and accordingly have larger hole sizes. Again the 2:1 machine can only use 2:1 wire. 2:1 wire can bind a stack of paper from 120 sheets of standard 80gsm paper and up to 340 sheets of standard 80gsm paper.

Chit Tray – this is the tray underneath the machine that catches the punched out pieces of paper during the paper punching process. Chit trays need to be emptied regularly.