Tips for Keeping Pages Falling Out of Your Unibind Photobooks

Are you having problems with pages falling out of your Unibind Photo books? Some glossy paper stocks are difficult to bind with the Unibind system. In fact all thermal glue binding systems have difficulty with these paper stocks. Many times, these heavier sheets will have a tendency to work themselves out of the bind over time. This is obviously a problem, especially for photobooks that get used a lot. However, there are a few things that you might consider in order to work around this problem.

1. One of the easiest ways to prevent pages from falling out of your Unibind book is to staple the edge of the documents. When I first suggest this option to customers they are usually hesitant to try it. However, if you do it right, the end users of your books will never know the difference. The key to stapling your document is to use a heavy duty stapler and to set the staples as close to the edge of the document as possible. Remember, the staples are not going to need to hold the book together. Instead, they are being used to keep any single page from working its way out of the bind. By stapling the book block as close to the edge as possible you will ensure that the staples will be hidden inside the steel binding spine (you will never see them) and you will never have to deal with pages falling out.

2. If you aren’t comfortable stapling the pages of your book or if your books are too large to staple you might consider an alternative method for ensuring a superior bind. When using glossy stocks it can sometimes be helpful to use sand paper to rough up the edge of book. This will take the slick coating off the edge of the book so that the glue can better adhere to the book block. This is a technique used by many traditional perfect binding machines to ensure a strong bind. This doesn’t work quite as well as stapling the book blocks but is still effective for binding glossy stocks. If you wanted to take this method one step further you could cut small slits in the edge of the spine of your book. Again this is a technique usually used in perfect binding to ensure superior adhesion.

3. In addition to one of the two possible solutions above there are other things that can help to ensure that pages don’t fall out of your Unibind photobooks. One thing to try is running your books through two binding cycles with your Unibind binding machine instead of just one. This will help ensure that all the adhesive in the Unibind spine is fully activated. Depending on the batch of adhesive used in your Unibind spines (there is no way to tell) the melting temperature can vary slightly. A second binding cycle can sometimes help to solve problems caused by not enough heat in the binding process.

4. Whenever binding documents, reports, presentations or photo books with your Unibind machine it is helpful to remember to tap the spine on a hard surface while the spine is still hot. This will help the pages of the document to fully settle into the adhesive and will result in a stronger bond.

5. Finally, pages can sometimes fall out of books bound with Unibind if they are not completely flush when they are inserted into the cover. If the front or back page is sticking up even an eighth of an inch it is possible that it will not come into contact with the Unibinding glue. For this reason it is important to jog your pages together and make sure that the book block is completely square before starting the binding process.

These are five tips to help solve problems with pages falling out of your Unibind photobooks. Using one, two, three or more of these ideas can help ensure that you have a superior bind that will withstand years of use and abuse.

by Jeff McRitchie