Wire Binding Machines

There's more to preparing a professional-looking report than font choices and page numbering. Many, if not most, people tasked with drafting reports and white papers use a wire binding machine to bundle all of the pages into a sort of book that's easy to flip through and durable enough to pass around at a meeting. These machines, often called binders, have become a must-have piece of office equipment.

Using a Manual or Automatic Wire Binding Machine
When discussing these wire binders, there are two types: manual and automatic (or electric) machines. Manual wire binding machines tend to cost less, but electric binders usually work faster and may be easier to use, depending on the built-in features. A manual version usually has a hand crank on the side that drives the machine through the coiling process and slowly pushes a wire coil through the prepunched holes in a stack of papers. An automatic binder typically uses an electric motor to do this with the push of a button, and it may combine the hole-punch, eyelet-reinforcement, and wire-binding steps into a single smooth action, so the user only has to line up the pages and start the machine to get a bound document.

Maximum Capacity of a Wire Binding Machine
The type of binding machine and the type of wire coil it uses mainly depends on the anticipated size of the reports it is binding. For stacks up to 1 inch in thickness, the simplest option is often a wire coil binding. These come in lengths of up to 12 inches, and many binders work exclusively with them. A somewhat more prestigious option for inch-thick papers is the double wire loop. Made from the same wire material as the single coil version, the binding features double loops, making for a much stronger, less flexible spine.

Speed and Ease of Use in a Wire Binding Machine
Running off a single bound report is relatively easy and simple to do, but many businesses need a lot of books assembled very quickly. The speed and ease of binding documents becomes a concern when a user needs more than two or three for distribution, or when time is short. Very simple mechanical binders can be quick if the user has the experience and a separate hole punch at hand. For big jobs, or for the less experienced person, a fully automated binder, which combines an internal motor for winding the coil with an attached power punch, may be preferable to the manual option.

How Does a Wire Binding Machine Work?
A binder takes stacks of paper into the guide slot and winds a wire coil through holes in the margin. Because the coil is a single continuous length of wire, the machine starts at one end and twists the coil through the holes until the entire length binds into a spine.

What's the Difference Between the Various Binding Types?
Binding comes in many forms. Wire coil binding is typically thin metal rods or molded plastic. Comb binding, which is usually plastic, is easy for users to apply to books and reports by hand. Velo binding is a kind of fabric that quickly binds stacks of paper up to 15 inches thick. For the thickest stacks, thermal binding uses a heat-activated glue to hold the documents' spines together.