This short shows about nine hours of book binding in our book bindery, sped up and condensed to just 50 seconds. (Though the production manager would love it if folks could work this fast.) We filmed on Monday, May 15th, from about 6:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and on that day, we shipped over 3,100 books.

Book Binding

In the far back, the larger gray machines you see are two BQ470 Horizon binders, and the smaller beige machine is one of our two BQ270 Horizon binders. You can see books coming out of the BQ470 and going through our Horizon HT 70 3-knife inline trimmer. We use the BQ470s for larger runs (300 to 2,000 copies), and the BQ270s for smaller runs (25 to 300 copies). The BQ470s are faster machines, but take longer to set up, while the BQ270s are slower machines, but take less time to set up.

Book Trimming

For smaller runs, we don’t trim inline, and on the bottom far right, you can see shorter book runs being trimmed by a Horizon APC-M61 single-knife trimmer. (We trim off the top, bottom, and thumb-edge of paperbacks.) On the middle left side, the blue/gray machine is one of two Stahl 3-knife trimmers.

Book Shipping

In the foreground, folks are packing books (you can see them padding the double-wall boxes for protection) for shipping via UPS ground or freight. We also shrink-wrap and poly bag books here too.

PUR Binding for Art Book Printing

Our interior print room and our PUR perfect binder is through the window you see on the left. We use the PUR binder for art books that are printing on coated interior stocks.

Archives

The tall bookshelves on the walls are just some of the many in our building. We archive a copy of every book we print (except for bound galleys), and when books are reprinted, we check color and margins against these originals.

Any questions? Would you like to see more videos? Let me know!