Showing posts with label PUR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PUR. Show all posts

Friday 24 July 2015

Bamford Haybarn

The Bamford brand is associated with a philosophy of natural ingredients. Having originally started with organic farming, the founder, Lady Bamford, embarked on a range of clothing from only natural fibres and purest bodycare from organic and botanical ingredients together.  Haybarn is the Bamford Spa and treatments brand and they have facilities at Daylesford and a few other exclusive locations.
 
This brochure has been produced by Sinéad Madden for the Bamford Haybarn at the Berkeley health club and spa at the Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge.
To convey the natural materials and ingredients used at the spa, the 4pp cover is embossed with a wood grain embossing ( ...printed on a well known text and cover from a Hull based paper merchant!). The brochure is 210mm square. The 64pp text is printed on our Omnia 150gsm, which has reproduced the images beautifully, whilst having that uncoated, tactile feel which the cover conveys.
Click on images to enlarge
There are 16pp of full size pages in the first section and the remaining 48pp appear in seven shorter sections, creating a divider feeling.
Each of the divider pages are printed with different wood grain effects to work with the embossing on the front cover.
The brochure is PUR bound and the overall spine thickness is 7mm.
The publication is printed CMYK, Offset Litho. The Omnia prints superbly and the fleshtones, which are notoriously difficult to reproduce well, look exquisite.
Design and art direction is by Sinéad Madden who runs her studio in London. This is a beautifully designed and luxurious publication. Print is by Pureprint.
 
www.pureprint.com
Posted by Justin Hobson 24.06.2015

Monday 15 June 2015

What is ...PUR Binding?

What is ...Number 18
Regular followers of this blog will know that in the middle of the month, I publish a "What is ....? post. The article covers various aspects of paper, printing and finishing in greater depth. However, many of these subjects are complex, so these posts are only intended to be a brief introduction to the topic.

What is ...PUR Binding?
Brochures, paperback books, hardcover books and magazines with a sqaureback and a thickness greater than around 5mm will be bound using either glue (perfect bound) or thread and glue (section sewn). In the early 1990's a new development in adhesive technology changed the strength and therefore the reputation of perfect binding forever.

Section sewn binding has been around since books were first produced - using different types of glue as times changed. Section sewn binding is still regarded as the best and strongest as it relies on both thread and glue. Perfect Binding (glue only) has always been regarded as weaker and less durable (...remember all those magazines and paperbacks where pages have fallen out?)

In the early 1990's, a new type of adhesive was developed. This adhesive is called Polyurethane Reactive Hotmelt and is known as PUR. As the name hotmelt suggests, the glue is heated and applied hot. This new adhesive involves a chemical reaction between the glue and moisture in the atmosphere and paper to give a much greater strength and flexibility than using normal glue. The finished bound books reach their optimum strength 24 hours after binding.

There was a bindery close to us called Tonbridge Trade Binders (TTB) which was the first bindery in the UK to install the tanks to handle PUR glue on their binding line, this was around 1995. Unfortunately TTB closed down about ten years ago but many trade binders now have PUR systems.
PUR binding is very strong but one of the limitations in the early days was that it was only suitable for longer runs, which I believe was to do with the time it took to set up the machinery, these days that isn't the case and there are PUR machines that can do small runs.
...for example, below is an image of the BB3002 PUR binding line by CP Bourg, a machinery manufacturer based in Belgium. It's representative of the relatively small machines now available, many of which are being installed by printers in house.
Today PUR binding is highly regarded and is many customer's preferred binding method.

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.06.2015