As one of the highest-capacity thermal
binding machines on the market, the Unibind XU638 is a great machine
for use in print shops, binderies, small publishing houses, and large
corporations who regularly bind their own books and reports.Here we will take a close look at the XU638's advantages and disadvantages.
As one of the highest-capacity thermal
binding machines on the market, the Unibind XU638 is a great machine
for use in print shops, binderies, small publishing houses, and large
corporations who regularly bind their own books and reports. Capable of
binding up to 48 books at a time, the XU638 also works with all of the
supplies that are available from Unibind. Here we will take a close
look at the XU638's advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages:
The XU638 is an extraordinarily quick and easy to use
binding system. There is no warm-up time, and the entire binding
process takes less than one minute.
With its six heating
elements, the XU638 is designed for heavy use, and to bind a large
number of books in a short amount of time. For thinner books (1mm), it
is possible to bind up to 48 books simultaneously. Even if you are
binding books that are an inch and a half thick, you can bind six at a
time. That, my friends, is some high-capacity binding.
The
XU638's heating units work independently of each other, which makes it
possible to load one heating unit while another is in use. This
increases productivity greatly, seeing as how this machine works so
quickly that it is at times difficult to keep up with.
As
stated above, all of Unibind's supplies work with the XU638. This gives
users a huge amount of flexibility in the types of documents they can
bind, including Unibind's unique and elegant SteelBook, Steelback,
SteelCrystal, SteelMat, and Photobook covers.
There is no
better look than that of a perfect bound book, and that is what the
Unibind XU638 offers. Unibind in particular, with its use of steel
spines, offers the most durable, rugged and permanent binding systems
available anywhere.
Disadvantages:
For such a high capacity, professional grade binding
system, it is a little bit of a mystery why Unibind didn't include a
cooling rack with the XU638, especially when you consider that most of
their smaller machines come with one. You will need to find a place to
allow the documents to cool, such as a library book cart, or one of
Unibind's book stands.
The XU638 is a bit limited regarding
document sizes. Unibind's supplies are available in standard eleven
inch and eight and a half inch sizes for landscape binding projects.
There are a few other sizes available in their Photobook line, but for
odd or custom sized projects, the XU638 may not be the best fit. Custom
sized supplies can be ordered from Unibind but may take months to be
produced since all covers are currently produced in Belgium and shipped
to the United States on boats.
As with any thermal binding
system, the XU638 has trouble with heavily-coated or high-gloss pages.
There are some workarounds, the best solution being to place a couple
staples near the edge (and within the spine so as not to be seen), but
this, of course lengthens production time.
As far as book
thickness, the XU638 tops out at one and a half inches. If you want to
bind thicker books, you will have to look elsewhere.
Recommendation:
As one of the most elegant, fast, and easy-to-use binding systems out
there, the XU638 is a great choice for businesses that do a lot of book
binding. Higher volume users may want to consider the Unibind ST1025.
Lower volume users who don't need to bind a large number of documents
at a time may want to consider the Unibind XU138, XU238 or XU338.
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