Hemlock makes a leap ahead in perfect binding technology.
At 90 feet long, our new, bright blue Alegro Perfect Binder stretches across the production floor like a piece of modern architecture.
A sculpture in tinted glass, spiral conveyors and machined metal. But it is more than a physical presence. It is machine intelligence, using advance automation to assemble catalogue, brochure and publication signatures into clean, perfect bound books. And it’s right here in our Burnaby plant.
What makes Perfect Binding perfect for a project?
Perfect binding is a type of book finishing where a stack of pages or “signatures” are joined with a strip of adhesive and wrapped with a cover or binding tape for a high end, finished appearance. Unlike a stitched magazine, perfect bound products have a higher degree of quality and permanence. Whether the page count is high or low, the final result is a clean finished spine with a wide range of design possibilities for both text and the cover.
“Hemlock is well established across North America for premium magazine, publication and catalogue printing,” says Hemlock Sr. VP Manufacturing, Jeff Taylor, “Offering high-quality perfect binding in our own plant lets us control quality, increase flexibility and shorten delivery times. We’ve invested substantially in prepress, press and digital printing technology in the last five years, and given the comparable advancements in finishing, we determined it was time to embrace the new potential in this crucial area”.
Not having to ship a job across the region or out of market for specialty binding offers environmental advantages too, reducing the carbon footprint of shipping for perfect bound projects.
Advanced European Technology and Performance
Muller Martini is one of Europe’s premier providers of graphics equipment systems. The Alegro was chosen for its intelligent design, precision engineering and ability to be configured for Hemlock’s specific needs. Our lead operators were sent to Switzerland for intensive training on the Alegro system. Muller Martini representatives have likewise been spending significant time at Hemlock, and the result has been a smooth installation to full operational capacity.
Durability, Reliability, and Consistency
How well books open, how they feel and how they last for your reader are our benchmarks. 100% of our perfect bound production is focused on creating the most durable, high-quality results on the widest variety of substrates and formats.
Now it's your turn to get perfectly creative.
The best part of acquiring new technology is seeing what our customers do with it. A range of wraps and cover options can create a variety of high-end design styles, bringing a custom look to brochures, catalogues, magazines and books. Covers with flaps, double-covers and extended covers can now be bound in a single pass. Thick books, thin books, and custom brochure formats can now all be imagined and created in-house. The new Alegro is ready on our plant floor for your next project. Go ahead. Take it for a spin.