Jeff McRitchie

GBC CI12 Electric Coil Inserter with Cut and Crimp Knives Review

Binding a document with spiral coil includes a number of important steps. You need to punch the pages, insert the coil through the holes on the document and then you need to crimp the ends of the coil so that they won't spin off the book.The GBC CI12 is designed to help reduce the time that it takes to insert and crimp documents that you are binding with spiral coil.

• Binding a document with spiral coil includes a number of important steps. You need to punch the pages, insert the coil through the holes on the document and then you need to crimp the ends of the coil so that they won't spin off the book. Unfortunately, this can be a very time consuming process.
• The GBC CI12 is designed to help reduce the time that it takes to insert and crimp documents that you are binding with spiral coil.
• It allows you simply insert the coil onto your documents and in one simple step crimp both ends of your document. For high volume users the GBC CI12 can save hours of crimping time while ensuring high quality uniform crimps on all your documents.

Strengths / Features:

• The CI12 has both an inserting roller and a pair of cut and crimp knives. The roller on the front of the machine works just like any high quality spiral coil inserter. However, the real time savings that is offered by this machine is in the crimping. Normally you would need to use a pair of crimping pliers on one side of the book and then flip the document over and crimp the other side of the document. The CI12 simplifies this process by crimping both the left and right side of the document at the same time. Plus, you don't have to worry about strain caused by operating a pair of crimping pliers repetitively.
• The high quality coil inserter included on the front of this machine is similar to the GBC CC2700 coil inserter. It offers dual spinning rollers that can be adjusted for different sizes of books. Using the rollers you should be able to insert coils up to 33mm in diameter onto your books.
• The cut and crimp knives on this machine can be adjusted to handle a number of different book sizes and thicknesses. They can be used for documents with a binding edge as short as 3" and as long as 2". They can also be used to crimp a number of different sizes of spiral coil. In fact, they can handle any size of coil between 6mm and 33mm. They can even accomidate different pitches of spiral coil.
• When it comes to finishing your books, the CI12 makes things incredibly simple. All you need to do is insert the coil onto the edge of your book. Slide the document into place on the machine and press down on the handle. It doesn't get much easier than that.
• The CI12 is designed for high volume applications inside of print shops, binderies or large organizations. Organizations that do a lot of coil binding will find that this machine can pay for itself within a matter of months or years. The value of this machine over other coil inserters is all in the time savings that it offers.

Weaknesses / Limitations:

• The GBC CI-12 is really designed for large runs of similar sized books. It takes a few minutes to get the machine set up for a new size of document and size of coil. If you are producing a hundred or a thousand books this shouldn't be a problem. However, if you need to create five books you are better off simply using a pair of crimping pliers. In fact, you can always use the coil inserter on the front of this machine and use a pair of coil crimpers for small runs. Save the cut and crimp knives for larger runs and save yourself the headaches involved in getting the machine set up.
• This machine is limited in the length of documents that it can crimp. The two crimping heads can be set up for handing books up to twelve inches in length. If you need to bind documents longer than this you will want to use a pair of crimping pliers or you will need to crimp one end at a time. Likewise, this machine is limited in the thickness of the documents that it can handle. It is designed for use with books up to 33mm in diameter. Books larger than this will require you to insert the coils by hand and complete the crimping process using a traditional pair of crimping pliers.

Recommendation:

• The GBC CI12 is an innovative coil inserter that includes the ability to cut and crimp the spine of your document in one easy step.
• This machine is ideal for large binderies, print shops, copy shops and organizations that produce large volumes of coil bound documents.
• This machine is best suited for companies that do long runs of similar sized documents and are looking for a way to cut labor costs and increase productivity. However, it is not ideal for finishing long documents, extremely thick books or for short run applications.

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