|
A BRIEF GUIDE TO BUYING A
WIRE BINDER.
There are
basically 2 distinct types of wire binder: 2:1 and 3:1
These numbers are the number of holes per inch
the wire binder punches.
They both require different wires.
3:1 wire binders are the most popular (3 holes per inch) and are
designed to bind documents up to 120 pages.
Traditionally 2:1 wire binders (2 holes per inch) were designed
for binding larger documents up to 300 pages of 80gsm paper, however, we
now stock wires for smaller 2:1 documents.
A third option is provided by Ibico
wire binders which use their own special wires.
Note: If you decide you
need both 2:1 and 3:1 there are options where you can get both in one
machine either electric or manual.
Once
you have decided upon the wire size then you need to decide upon the
style of wire binder you need,
This is primarily dictated by the size of
paper you are planning to bind:-
Fixed Pin - Suited to binding A4
on the longside and A3 on the shortside.
Selectable Pins - All non standard paper sizes and best for calendar
making.
Note: If you are
looking to wire bind the longside of A3 or shortside of A2 there are
options available, although you won't find A3 wires - the simple
solution is to use 2 A4 wires and more often than not once the document
is bound you will not notice the wires are in two parts!
You can
now start looking at available options which are divided into 3 further categories
- dependant upon usage and budget.
Manual Punch - for general use - for low to medium
volumes of binding.
Electric Punch -
These wire binders have a foot punch to punch the paper - this has 2
advantages :-
-
Benefit One - When punching the
paper, it can often be quite difficult and/or tiring to punch lots
of paper, the electric punch takes away this problem.
-
Benefit Two - The second
advantage is speed - a pedal operated punch is much quicker but
these machines are generally more expensive
Die based binding machines
- with either manual or Electric options.
They offer the ultimate flexibility
from one machine - simply swap the die to suit the type of binding you
require.
This is also a great space saver
where worktop/desktop space is limited - as you only need to have the
one machine out
Speed - With die based systems you
generally have a separate punch and closer - so when you have a large
job on or you are pushed for time 2 people can operate the
machinery - cutting production time dramatically.
What do you get
for your money?
More expensive wire binders,
generally speaking:-
-
Punch more paper in one go -
Fact.
-
Punch the paper more easily -
Usually.
-
Give a better quality finish -
some cheaper wire binders have a tendency to close tighter one end than the other
- giving a poor quality finish - we try to ensure this is not the
case with any of our wire binders.
-
Have a better build quality,
apparently. All makes have more powerful expensive
versions, some more reliable than others.
-
Are more reliable? I question
this as many lower budget machines are proving to be very reliable,
some are getting very heavy use. If we find customers experiencing
excessive problems with reliability or warranty problems we will
stop selling those machines.
-
Many have a longer warranty - up
to 2 years (Renz & GBC) or even 4 years (Lietz)! Always a good thing.
There are 2 distinct styles of wire
binder available.
The sleek office machine and the more rugged
commercial design, sometimes referred to as "retro".
Personally I prefer the more rugged look of the commercial machines -
they are normally all metal construction, quite heavy, and built for
purpose rather than looks, this does not mean that the sleeker office
machines cannot do an equally good job.
As far as reputation goes, then Renz
machines are clearly the market leaders. That's not to say there other
makes are any less reliable or as well built.
What you will find on our site is
that there may be some machines missing from our range, often this is
due to availability or error but more importantly we stop selling
machines which have a reliability problem or a warranty that does not
meet the requirements for full customer backup for the life of the
warranty.
Below you will find a summary of the
types of wire binder available:-
|
