Q My firm, Hive Associates, is a specialist lenticular printer that has recently been involved in a couple of DM projects, where Hive manufactures a paper-backed lenticular postcard that requires third-party personalisation and mail sort. However, I cannot find a company that offers the quality and reliability required - both factors are very important. I have been told that laser finishing is not possible as the heat from the laser will warp the plastic lenticular element. I'm not too worried about the process, all I want is a company (or two) that can finish the job with a decent resolution (minimum 600dpi) efficiently, on time and on budget. The total thickness of the cards is 540 micron and the quantities could be anything from 100,000 up to 500,000.
Matthew Bruce, Hive Associates, London

A I'm not having much luck finding someone who can do this, so having spent a fruitless morning on the phone I'm going to give up, in the hope that the ever-resourceful PrintWeek and printweek.com readership will be more effective at helping Matthew pinpoint a solution.

Q I am looking for a trade binder to case-bind 5,000 books - not a problem in itself, but the client wants radius corners on both the text pages and the cover itself and I can't find anyone to do this. The closest I have come is Skyline Bookbinders who can round corner the text pages, but not the cover. I think the problem really lies with making the cases with round corners, ie wrapping the covering around the radius corners.
Martin Cornford, L&S Printing, Worthing

A You're right, this is an unusual requirement and finding someone who can do both is a challenge. Suffolk-based Halesworth Print Finishers specialises in some of the quirkier and more labour-intensive aspects of finishing, and takes great pride in the finishing skills it has built up. Drilling, round cornering, brass eyeleting and thumb indexing are among its services. The firm has carried out this type of binding for major book printers, though managing director Ezra Leverett tells me there is an element of compromise involved because of the difficulties in getting the material on the case to follow the round corner. Contact: 01986 874551, www.halesworth-print-finishers.co.uk. I'd also like to thank Ezra for his extraordinary and inspiring perkiness on a Monday morning, especially as he was up at 5.15am to turn the gilding machine on.

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