The Akiles Roll-A-Coil is
a high quality, inexpensive standalone spiral coil inserter that is
designed for print shops, quick printers, binderies and other high
volume coil binding users.Equipped with a foot pedal and a number of
great features, the Roll-A-Coil offers one of the best bangs for your
buck when compared to other pieces of coil inserting equipment.
Overview:
The Akiles Roll-A-Coil is
a high quality, inexpensive standalone spiral coil inserter that is
designed for print shops, quick printers, binderies and other high
volume coil binding users.
Sometimes called a coil spinner or
coil inserting machine, this machine is designed to help you spin your
coils through the holes onto your document as part of the spiral
binding process.
Equipped with a foot pedal and a number of
great features, the Roll-A-Coil offers one of the best bangs for your
buck when compared to other pieces of coil inserting equipment.
Strengths / Features:
When
it comes to coil inserting equipment, the prices are all over the map.
Some coil inserters can cost thousands of dollars. Many organizations
on a budget have a hard time swallowing that type of cost after they
have already spent thousands on a modular binding punch. With a cost of
less than $250, the Akiles Roll-A-Coil is on the opposite end of the
spectrum. Although it doesn't offer all of the features of other
inserters, it is priced affordably enough that almost any company can
afford it. In fact, many companies with manual or combination coil
binding machines choose to purchase this machine to help increase
productivity when binding documents with coil.
Although the
Roll-A-Coil is offered at a great price, that doesn't mean that it
isn't a good quality piece of equipment. It has two eleven inch long
spinning rollers that are designed to grip the spine of your document
and spin it through the holes. It is ruggedly built with a heavy duty
case and high quality components that are designed to offer excellent
performance in production environments.
This machine includes
several features that are not found on all other coil binding machines.
It has an alignment channel that is designed to help you form the spine
of your book for inserting larger diameter coils. It also includes a
pitch identifier to help you determine what pitch of coil that you have
and has a document sizing guide to help you choose the right size of
coil for your documents.
Weaknesses / Limitations:
The
two rollers on the Akiles Roll-A-Coil are fixed. Many more expensive
coil binding machines allow you to adjust the distance between the two
moving rollers for use with larger diameter spines. Realistically, the
Roll@Coil is best suited for inserting coils up to about 22mm (7/8") in
diameter. It will most likely struggle to inserter larger diameter
coils than this. However, even the most expensive coil inserters have
difficulties with larger diameter spines.
The rollers on the
Roll-A-Coil are fairly small when compared to other coil inserters that
are available on the market. Again, larger rollers are designed to make
inserting larger diameter coils easier. As long as you are inserting
smaller sized elements this shouldn't be an issue.
The Roll A
Coil is powered by an electric motor and driven by a clear plastic
rubber belt. This belt is fairly high quality but over time will wear
out. The belts only cost a few dollars and it is a really good idea to
keep and extra one or two of them on hand in case they break.
Unfortunately, this machine will not work without that belt.
Recommendation:
The Akiles Roll-A-Coil is an excellent choice for high volume users that demand productivity on a budget.
Although
there are certainly higher quality coil inserters available on the
market, they also cost a lot more money than this machine.
The
Roll A Coil has all of the most important features that are essential
for a coil inserter and works wonderfully for smaller diameter books.
However, users who need to bind thicker books may want to consider an
inserter with larger adjustable rollers.
This review was written by Jeff McRitchie who is the director of marketing for Mybinding.com.
Jeff has written more than three hundred articles and more than two
hundred reviews on Binding Machines, Binding Supplies, Report Covers,
3-Ring Binders, Index Tabs, Laminators, Laminating Supplies, Paper
Shredders and Paper Handling Equipment.
