Comparing FastBack, UniBind and Thermal Binding

Posted on May 21, 2009 - Filed Under Business |

Fastback from Powis Parker, UniBind and the various other thermal
binding systems (such as the P2000 from ProBind) are similar in many
respects, but have some major differences. When deciding which system
is best suited for your needs, it is important to understand what you
hope to get from your binding system as well as what the various
machines are designed to do.

Fastback from Powis Parker, UniBind and the various
other thermal binding systems (such as the P2000 from ProBind) are
similar in many respects, but have some major differences. When
deciding which system is best suited for your needs, it is important to
understand what you hope to get from your binding system as well as
what the various machines are designed to do.

First, it is
important to note that all of the systems are incredibly fast. Thermal
binding is by far the fastest of the binding systems available today.
One unique advantage of UniBind and other traditional thermal binding
systems is the ability to bind several books at one time. If your
application calls for a large number of the exact same document to be
produced, UniBind and thermal binding are great options. Fastback,
while exceptionally fast at 15 seconds per binding cycle, allows for
one book at a time.

Another factor to look at is the costs of the
equipment and the associated costs of supplies. The equipment cost of
UniBind and thermal binding are very low as they start under $500. The
Fastback model 9 starts at about $2300.00. There is a huge difference
in cost in the supplies as well. While UniBind will start at about
$1.25 per bind and thermal binding starts right at $1.00 per bind,
Fastback starts at about $0.30 per bind.

A huge issue to take
into consideration is the cost of inventory as well. UniBind and
thermal binding have preset spine sizes, similar to combs or coils,
where you will need to have several sizes of product on the shelf to
accommodate a range of document thicknesses. A hand full of boxes of
supplies at over $100 per box can add up quickly-not to mention the
additional space requirements of the stock. With Fastback, you will
only need up to three boxes of strips, taking up less space than a
single box of covers to accommodate any document from 2 pages to 375
pages.

One of the most common complaints that people have with
UniBind and thermal binding is that the spines are slightly larger than
the number of pages you are binding. When you look at the side of the
document you can see a gap. With Fastback, the machine tightly wraps
the strip no matter what size the document is.

All three options
have several finishes to choose from, making them some of the most
versatile binding systems available. All three can bind soft covers and
hard covers. UniBind has hard covers, covers with incorporated front
and back clear or frost covers and a unique product called a SteelBack
spine that enables you to use your own covers. Thermal Binding has a
glue strip to enable you to create your own perfect bound books along
with paper covers and hard covers. Fastback has a huge number of
options including hard covers, SuperStrips that have a linen finish,
CompStrips that have a leatherette finish, true perfect binding, and
Halfback covers that enable you to print on a cover prior to binding.

Many
users want to use their own cover sets to give them the exact look they
desire and to lower the overall cost of binding. Thermal binding
requires that you use a solid, wrap around cover and is very
inflexible. UniBind offers the SteelBack spine to enable you to use
your own covers. Powis Parker is by far the best in this perspective
giving you the ultimate flexibility to use your own covers or Fastback
covers that exactly match the strip. Fastback even offers a foil
printer to customize hard covers and leatherette covers as well as a
spine printer to print on the spine of the document.

UniBind,
thermal binding and Fastback are excellent options for Photobooks as
well. Each has their own styles and sizes to choose from. Fastback
offers a Photobook work cell that incorporates a stitcher in the
binding process to insure that the glossy photo paper will not come out
of the book afterbinding.

There are many factors involved in
choosing the proper thermal binding system. Machine price, supply
price, binding options, binding speed , and appearance of finished
product are perhaps the most important factors to take into
consideration.

About the author

Jeff McRitchie is the director of Marketing for MyBinding.com . He has
written more than five hundred articles on topics related to binding
machines, binding supplies, presentation covers, ring binders, index
tabs, laminators, laminating pouches, roll film, shredders and paper
handling equipment. If you have any questions about Fastback Binding Equipment or Fastback Binding Supplies check out MyBinding.com.

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