But above all, he is renowned for his classic book on post-press operations, Bookbinding with adhesives. The book went out of print some years ago and whenever the Indian print community wanted to source a few - it drew a blank.
The good news is, Welbound Worldwide is reprinting the book. The handbook by Clark, who is one of the original gurus of adhesive binding will be available at the Welbound stall during PrintPack 2011. The book has been jointly edited by P Sajith, marketing director at Welbound and Ramu Ramanathan, editor of PrintWeek India.
Anil Krishna, Henkel CAC India
It was in 1992, I received a call from the director of Hindustan Unilever, Debu Bhattacharyya, asking me to take up a new responsibility - that of being the business manager of adhesives.
Being a chemical engineer and having spent time in development, production and QC - it was not difficult for me to understand adhesives, its properties and the methods of manufacturing.
However I realised the challenge - the range of applications. Unless we know the application industry, the machines, the substrates, it will be impossible to adapt to such needs.
My training with National Adhesives helped me understand this. In industries like non-woven and packaging, Indian users had similar machines and technology as those employed in developed countries - so the learning curve was shorter. In the case of bookbinding - the case was very different. It was clear that I needed to learn the basics.
When I raised this during my training at National Adhesives in Singapore, I was given a small black book and told - read the Bible. Bookbinding with adhesives by Tony Clark - read the unfussy, understated cover. I started reading this on my way back to India - and did not stop till I landed in Mumbai.
In very simple language, the author explained the basics of adhesives, bookbinding - and then went on to describe the trends in technology. What has helped me and my team as well as customers - is the trouble-shooting section. The book became my constant travel companion.
I was lucky to have the opportunity of inviting Tony Clark to India, in 1995. We had two technical seminars - one in New Delhi and the other in Mumbai. These were the early days of perfect binding. Still, the curiosity (of what was perceived a modern method), ensured that the seminars were jam-packed.
Tony was like a music conductor, waving at projected slides, ripping apart books and running his fingers over the spine of a well bound book. Whoever attended that seminar will not forget him - for demystifying the adhesive binding technology, using simple words and examples. Clark’s contribution to the bookbinding industry is immense.
Werner Rebsamen, RIT (Emeritus)
That Tony Clark’s Bookbinding with adhesives will be made available is the best news in over a decade. Tony, like myself, grew-up in this industry when bookbinders used only pastes and protein adhesives to hold the books. When the first water-based, white polyvinyl acetate adhesives arrived in the 1950s, we had to learn new ‘tricks’. In the mid 1960s, we started perfect binding books and catalogs with a new, hot adhesive called hotmelt.
As bookbinders, we always used to test the viscosity of protein glues between our fingers. Some old-timers tried that particular trick with hotmelt, only once! Those first perfect bound books bound with hotmelt did not last. Some of these early adhesive formulations disintegrated within a year or two. The big break-through came in 1969 with the EVA hotmelt adhesives. But as it is with new technologies, we, the edition bookbinders, were not allowed to use hotmelts for binding hardcover bound books, they all had to be sewn through the fold!
When I joined RIT (1974) and became a full-time educator in print finishing and bookbinding, good teaching material was virtually non-existent. Luckily, in 1971, my Swiss colleague Alfred Furler published a book on The Technology of Adhesive Binding. It did help me but what about the rest of the world who did not understand German? The best education we received on all aspects of adhesive binding were shared by technical representatives. They conducted in-plant technical seminars.
Tony Clark, working as an adhesive binding chemist for National Starch was a technical guru. He has seen failures. Therefore in the 1980s, he decided to publish a book on the subject. This is to help hard-working operators, to solve their adhesive / perfect binding problems. He covered it all – paper grain-direction, poor signature handling, spine preparations, one and two shot applications, book-testing and best of all, 26 pages of fault-finding illustrations and description. Wherever I had to share my knowledge in foreign countries, no matter if they spoke Spanish or Chinese, I was able to pin-point faults, thanks to Clark’s book and its great illustrations.
