"Soon all softcover books at Replika will all be threadless and move to PUR. Replika has chosen the high-end, high capacity PUR system MOD 20 from Robatech for this upgrade. This would enable the binding of even thick books at high speed," said P Sajith of Welbound Worlwide.

Replika Press cited the need to move away from thread sewing as the primary reason behind opting for PUR.

"One of the key issues challenging the book printing industry in India is the necessity to thread-sew book blocks before cover pasting. At the moment, thread sewing is the only bottle-neck in bookbinding. We have realised that PUR hotmelt is the only solution for such jobs," said Sajith.


With this installation, Replika will have a solution for every book that can be printed on paper with capability to produce runs from 500 to 5,00,000 and deliver soft-case and hard-case with perfect or PUR bound with added application of special finishes, UV varnish, die-punching, foil stamping and blocking. Launched as a 100% export oriented unit a decade ago with an area of 33,000 sq/ft. Today it is an ISO 9001:2008 company operating from a 1,32,000 sq/ft sprawling print production facility in Kundli, Haryana.

The installation is a step further for Welbound's strategy to work closely with publishers and printers in order to make them adapt the new technology, easily.

This is the third PUR install by the trio of Henkel, Robatech and Welbound Worldwide. In September 2011, Pragati Offset started doing book binding with PUR with the installation of RobaPur 4 MOD system on its Kolbus. Sahaya Print Services in Mumbai has ordered a Welbound single-clamp binder with Robapress pre-melter. It will be the first in Mumbai to have PUR capability. The equipment, Welbound PU Tech, was on display at Pamex 2011 from 1-4 November 2011 at Pragati Maidan.

Winner of PrintWeek India Post-press Company of the Year 2011 Award, Bhuvnesh Seth of Replika Press will be present at the first National Book Printer's Conference which is being held from 17-19 November at Trivandrum.