Jeff McRitchie

Akiles DuoMac 531 5:1 Coil and 3:1 Wire Binding Machine Review

The Akiles DuoMac 531 is the only combination desktop binding system that is designed for use with 5:1 pitch spiral coil and 3:1 pitch twin loop wire.Using the two punching patterns that are produced by this machine it is actually possible to bind your documents with four different binding styles. This is excellent for organizations that want to bind different types of documents with different styles of binding.

• The Akiles DuoMac 531 is the only combination desktop binding system that is designed for use with 5:1 pitch spiral coil and 3:1 pitch twin loop wire.
• This high quality machine is excellent for organizations that are looking for a highly durable and versatile binding machine to produce professional documents and reports.
• Using the two punching patterns that are produced by this machine it is actually possible to bind your documents with four different binding styles. This is excellent for organizations that want to bind different types of documents with different styles of binding.

Strengths / Features:

• The Akiles DuoMac 531 is designed to punch documents with a 5:1 pitch round hole pattern or a 3:1 pitch square hole pattern. The five to one pitch hole pattern is designed to bind your documents with 5:1 pitch tightly wound spiral coil for a highly professional appearance. The three to one pitch punching pattern is normally used with twin loop wire. However, it is also compatible with GBC Proclick binding spines and with 3:1 pitch spiral coil. This provides users with four different options for binding their documents using one machine.
• This machine includes a high quality wire closer on the front of the machine. This wire closer can be used to close 3:1 pitch double loop wire spines. These spines are available in sizes ranging from 3/16" up to 9/16" in diameter.
• The DuoMac 531 includes two small knobs on the right hand side of the machine. These knobs allow you to adjust how far the holes will be punched from the edge of your paper. For small sized documents you can adjust the holes so that they are closer to the edge. This will ensure that the pages in your presentations will turn freely. However, for larger documents it is a good idea to set the holes so they are further away from the edge of your sheets. This helps to provide strength to your bound proposals and prevents sheets from tearing out of your documents.
• The three to one wire binding punch on this machine has fully disengageable dies for punching any sheet length up to fourteen inches. The five to one coil punch includes five strategically placed disengageable punching pins to allow for punching the most common sheet sizes up to 13 inches in length. Both punching throats are open for handling longer paper sizes using a two step process.
• The 531 also includes a pair of high quality spiral coil crimping pliers. These pliers are used to help finish your spiral bound documents. The pliers are designed to help cut and crimp the ends of your spiral coil so that the coils don't spin off your bound documents.

Weaknesses / Limitations:

• Using 3:1 pitch wire and 5:1 pitch coil it is possible to create highly professional presentations and proposals. However, both of these binding styles are limited in the thickness of books that they can bind. Three to one pitch wire can be used to bind documents up to 9/16" thick. Five to one pitch coil is available in sizes up to 25mm for binding documents up to an inch thick. If you need to bind documents that are larger than one inch you can potentially use three to one pitch coil for this machine. However, if you need to bind a lot of documents that are over an inch thick it might be a good idea to look at one of the other DuoMac binding machines.
• Although this machine is designed for binding documents with spiral coil and includes a pair of spiral coil crimpers, it does not include a coil inserter. Akiles suggests that users combine this machine with a Roll @ coil modular spiral coil inserter to help finish documents that are bound with 5:1 pitch coil.
• The Duomac 531 is designed to a lot of different things. It is built well and shouldn't break. However, adding all these features to one machine does make it fairly bulky and makes it appear a little bit intimidating. There are a lot of handles and knobs on this machine. It really isn't that difficult to use but users who have never used a binding machine before may get a little bit confused with all of the options.

Recommendation:

• If you are looking for the flexibility to bind documents with both five to one spiral coil and three to one pitch spiral coil or GBC Proclick then the DuoMac 531 is the right machine for you.
• In fact this is the only desktop binding machine that offers this combination of binding options.
• The DuoMac 531 is durable, versatile and practical. It is a great fit for small and medium sized organizations that want the ability to create highly professional reports and presentations that are bound with either wire or coil.
• However, users should carefully consider the size limitations of the binding styles offered by the DuoMac 531.
• Many users may be better off choosing the DuoMac 431 which binds documents using 4:1 pitch coil and 3:1 pitch wire. Four to one pitch coil is more commonly available and comes in a wider variety of sizes. However, it is not as tightly wound and some users prefer the look of 5:1 spirals.

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