If you are looking for a high quality comb opener for your company you should really at least take a look at the HD 4470 from PDI. It is a high quality, ruggedly built machine that is designed specifically for commercial applications. Here are some strengths and weaknesses of this machine.
First, lets start with some of the machine s strengths. This unit can be used by itself. Or it can be attached to a heavy duty punching unit using a special kit to bolt it to the top of the machine. Some companies choose to attach their opener onto their punch to help conserve office space. In fact, it is common to see the 4470 bolted to a machine along with another piece of finishing equipment such as a coil inserter or wire closer. This unit is actually fourteen inches long and can be used for binding virtually any document up to that length. Plus, the 4470 is designed to handle virtually any size of plastic binding comb available on the market. Whether you need to bind documents with small round combs or larger oval combs, this machine will do the job and it will do it fast.
This machine includes a great feature that allows you to control how far you want to open your plastic comb binding spine. If you are binding a large number of books that are the same size, this can come in really handy and will help to increase productivity. It will also keep you from accidentally opening the comb too far which can result in the comb flying across the room. Plus, one of the great things about the HD 4470 is that once you open a comb the machine is designed to keep it open so that you can insert the pages onto the spine. Many other comb openers will slowly slip closed when you let go of the handle. That can be a huge pain if you are trying to line up your pages and insert them onto the fingers of a large plastic comb.
Still, this comb opener is not without limitations. The HD4470 is designed for documents up to fourteen inches in width (about 24 rings). If you are planning on binding documents that are longer than this you will most likely need to insert the last few rings by hand. If you only have a few documents to do, that may not be too bad. However, if you need to bind a large number of documents it might be a pain. The other limitation of this machine is that it is a manual unit. For every document, you will need to pull the handle and release it when you are done. That may seem obvious, however, if you need to bind thousands of books it could definitely be a limitation. For the highest volume applications you may need to consider an electric comb opener such as the GBC PB 2600. However, for most users that machine is overpriced and won t save very much time.
When everything is said and done, this machine is actually very good at what it does. It is easy to use, fast and built ruggedly for high volume applications. If you need a comb opener, you should definitely consider the HD 4470 from Rhino Tuff.
Author Resource:
Jeff McRitchie is the designer and Director of Marketing for http://www.mybinding.com .He has written over 500 articles on binding machines,binding covers,binders,laminators,binding supplies,laminating supplies,paper handling equipments,index tabs, and shredders.