Perfect binding - small tear in cover

[lightbulb]

Hi

I am from a digital printing business and we outsource perfect binding to a trade finishing house.

We recently got a perfect bound job back from them, and on each book, on the cover (front of the book), along the top edge, starting from the spine and continuing for maybe 10mm, the cover had a small tear in it.

I questioned them and was told that with maybe 1 out of every 10 or 15 jobs this happens and they're not sure why. It could be the stock etc etc.

In our case, the covers were printed on an Indigo and matt celloglased on the outside by the print finishing house. Having no knowledge of the perfect binding side of the printing business I'm not sure what to believe and how to solve this problem. I'm not sure whether what i've been told is the truth or whether I'm getting porkies because the operator has stuffed up/didn't care.

Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. If you need any more information please don't hesitate to ask.

[easiprint]

Before starting my own shop, I worked for a digital print company, and I ran their perfect binder for a couple of years. This sounds to me like it could be caused by two possibilities. If they are using a standard guillotine to 3 side trim, they could be not trimming against the spine (although I would find this unlikely as anyone should know to trim with the blade travel towards the spine). The other possibility (and the most likely in my opinion) is that their blades need sharpening. This would apply to a standard guillotine or a proper 3 sided trimmer. The blades must be sharp or this will happen. We changed the blades a couple of times a week at my old company to make sure this did not happen. There is no way my old boss would accept any form of tearing on the covers, and a good operator should be able to avoid it. Looks like they are skimping on their sharpening proceedures to me.

Simon

[Al Ferrari]

Is the tear nearly identical on every book? I am having trouble visualizing this; a picture would help.

If they have seen this before, does it happen as the cover is assembled to the gathered book, or during the trimming? If the latter, how are they trimmed: one at a time, or in stacks? Is the foot of the book trimmed by the same blade? Can it be a dull knife?

Most important of all: why did they continue with the job without your approval after they noticed this recurring problem???

[SES]

I know exactly what you're talking about as this affects us as well.

Typically, perfect bound books are cut face down when cutting the top portion down to ensure that you are cutting into the spine first (if you don't cut into the spine first, the cut will cause much more tearing on the side of the book on the spine). When the blade is dull, it will "tear" through the front cover instead of cutting through it.

We experienced this problem even with a freshly sharpened blade. We did two things to remedy this:

1) We had the company sharpening our blades (Lynde-Ordway) increase the angle, making the cutting edge much smaller.
2) We put scrap paper under the book when cutting to apply more pressure to the front cover to reduce tearing

Hope this helps.

[lfelton]

I'm not sure whether what i've been told is the truth or whether I'm getting porkies because the operator has stuffed up/didn't care.

Hmmm... I'm going to go with stuffed up here. There's no way that they should have run the job if there are noticable defects. Even if it's "not their fault" (hard to believe), they should have picked up the phone and talked about it with you. Find another finisher.

[apepp]

...with the pressures involved with "must get this job out today!" it's not surprising people end up cutting corners in finishing, it happens a lot with finishers and also in many other trades, ones ease is another's hell...

[brkapur]

One possible reason is the grain direction of the cover card/paper. Ensure grain direction is parallel to the spine

[ondemandbindery]

Hi

I am from a digital printing business and we outsource perfect binding to a trade finishing house.

We recently got a perfect bound job back from them, and on each book, on the cover (front of the book), along the top edge, starting from the spine and continuing for maybe 10mm, the cover had a small tear in it.

I questioned them and was told that with maybe 1 out of every 10 or 15 jobs this happens and they're not sure why. It could be the stock etc etc.

In our case, the covers were printed on an Indigo and matt celloglased on the outside by the print finishing house. Having no knowledge of the perfect binding side of the printing business I'm not sure what to believe and how to solve this problem. I'm not sure whether what i've been told is the truth or whether I'm getting porkies because the operator has stuffed up/didn't care.

Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. If you need any more information please don't hesitate to ask.

I would have to see a visual. Past that, the firm should have just stopped production. Them not knowing what the problem is has a big underlying issue but to continue running the job knowing there is a quality issue leads down a path to nowhere. Will you be able to sell the job or atleast try to discount it to move out of your facility and just move forward from this?

[lfelton]

One possible reason is the grain direction of the cover card/paper. Ensure grain direction is parallel to the spine

This whole grain direction thing confuses me and in my experience is generally trotted out as an excuse when someone doesn't know what the real problem is. When I was last told that we needed to change grain direction for specific jobs the paper rep came out to the factory, had a chat with us and explained that all of the "stock" paper in the local warehouse is the same grain direction; some paper could be special ordered with a different grain direction, some couldn't. It all sounded expensive, complicated and irrelevant as it turned out in the end that the trainer in question just didn't know how to set the "new style" decurlers on our new press.

We print quite a few short run books, lots of different sizes in short runs run lengths from POD to thousands. We don't get the issue that the OP mentions and we never change grain direction for different sizes. Sounds like a poor oppo using a blunt blade on a guilly to me. Use sharp knives on a 3-knife trimmer next time IMO.

[ondemandbindery]

Grain direction can play a huge roll in Perfect Binding. Something that can prevent chipping is to bind the book and let the glue cool then trim. This is exactly why you better have your crap together if you are going to glue stuff for a living. Either way, make a resolution and move forward. If you like your current finishing vendor, meet with them and try to create an enviroment that won't let this happen again. And as for Rush, gotta go, job is late mentaility, this is absolutely a problem. It is now the standard in this industry. But what has not changed is the 3 things in production. Quality, price, and turnaround time. Pick 2 of em' cause you ain't getting all 3...............