P Narendra of Pragati was thrilled about the installation of PUR system. The solution was provided by the trio of Henkel, Robatech and Welbound Worldwide. The adhesive is from Henkel and the integration of the system has been done by engineers from Welbound.
According to M Suresh Nair of Welbound and the team leader for this project, "Integrating a PUR system on an existing machine has its own challenges. What has helped us is our experience on spine preparation and gluing that are critical to perfect binding."
Superior adhesion over standard hotmelt and layflat capabilities were cited as the important reasons for Pragati finalising PUR. Other benefits of PUR include resistance to extreme temperatures, adhering to coated papers, shear strength, less wrinkle on backbone, solvent resistance to name a few.
The installation is a part of Welbound’s strategy to work closely with publishers and printers in order to make them adapt the new technology, easily. According to P Sajith, marketing director at Welbound, 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. "Welbound realised that PUR hotmelt is the only solution for such jobs," said Sajith.
At PrintPack 2011, Welbound demonstrated India's first high-speed PUR perfect binder WB3600. The WB3600 PUR perfect binder produced annual diaries at the show, eliminating the process involving thread sewing.
While PUR binding is a better choice for binding jobs, incorporating PUR is slightly more expensive than traditional hot melt glue. Using PUR will increase the binding cost of a job by 5% – 7% on average. This may translate to just a 1% increase in the full cost of the entire print project.
"However, that is a small price to pay for a 'faster-to-market' book that lays flat; that can survive in the Himalayas as well as the Sahara and that has no issues with the varnish or the printing inks," concluded Sajith.
