A plastic comb book is a book with a comb binding technique for finishing. Other terms for this binding technique are surelox binding or cerlox binding. This is one of a bunch of binding techniques to bind many pages together.
The Comb Binding Technique for Books
A comb binding technique to bind a book is using round plastic spines that have 19 rings if you print on US letter-sized papers. If you are printing on A4 paper, then you need to prepare round plastic spines with 21 rings on them. You also need to prepare a hole puncher to make holes in the papers.
The number of papers you are about to bind will affect the size of the round plastic spine you should use. Each spine has different capacities and won’t hold too many papers at once. To choose the right spine for your upcoming publication, you need to check out these capacity details.
| Spine size in inches | Spine size in millimeters | Spine capacity (sheets of paper) |
| 2 | 51 | 425 |
| 1 ¾ | 45 | 375 |
| 1 ½ | 38 | 325 |
| 1 ¼ | 32 | 275 |
| 1 1/3 | 28 | 250 |
| 1 | 25 | 200 |
| 7/8 | 22 | 175 |
| ¾ | 20 | 150 |
| 5/8 | 16 | 125 |
| 9/16 | 14 | 100 |
| ½ | 12 | 85 |
| 7/16 | 11 | 70 |
| 3/8 | 10 | 55 |
| 5/16 | 8 | 40 |
| ¼ | 6 | 25 |
| 3/16 | 4 | 16 |
Plastic Comb Book Binding Process
The binding process using a plastic comb is involving a hole punch to punch holes in all papers you want to bind together. Use the machine to punch the pages several times. If you want to use a hardcover, you need to punch the hardcover as well.
For a bulk application, instead of using a manual hole puncher, you can use a paper drilling machine. The machine is going to save time and help you finish the binding process more quickly. After punching papers, you need to choose the right spine size to match your document.
The standard sizes usually are 4.8mm if you want to bind 16 sheets of paper. Or you can use the 51mm spine to bind up to 425 sheets of paper. The length of the spine is usually 280mm or 11 inches for the letter-size paper, if the paper size is different, the spine length will be different.
Colorful Spines for Colorful Comb Book
What makes comb binding type more stunning and attractive is the various colors to choose from. At least fifteen different colors are available to make your books look appealing. The neutral ones are white, black, clear, matte frost, and matte black.
But you can also choose one from the other color options like brown, gray, steel, royal blue, hunter or green, yellow, maroon, red, navy, and light green. However, different printing businesses may offer different color options for the plastic comb spined for all publications you want to print.
A plastic comb book looks attractive because of the plastic spine and the fantastic color it has. You can pick the best plastic comb to match the theme and cover of the book you print. There are many options for spine available, in terms of colors, sizes, and lengths.
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