As the least expensive spiral coil binding machine that offers disengageable dies and an electric coil inserter, the PC200E is well positioned in the marketplace. Presented as a binding solution for small or home offices, this machine has some strong features and a couple of weaknesses worth mentioning. Here is our opinion of the PC200E spiral coil binding system.
Strengths:
1. At this price point, it would be reasonable to expect the PC200E to be made of cheap plastic parts. We certainly did, and were very pleasantly surprised to find that this machine is of solid metal construction. As far as we can tell, this is a machine that is built to last a long time, and if used in a small office or home setting, it may just last forever.
2. The most impressive feature of the PC200E is that it all of its punching dies are disengageable. This is almost unheard of for a spiral coil binding machine at this price point. For the uninitiated, what this means is that you can stop any one of the punching pins from punching. That enables the user to bind documents of just about any length without worrying about a half hole on the edge of your paper. The open throat design that the PC200E features allows users to bind documents that are longer than eleven inches, using a multi step process. This is some pretty remarkable flexibility to have at such a low price.
3. The PC200E includes an electric spiral coil inserter that is operated by a foot pedal. This is bordering on brilliant as it allows the user to hold the pages of the document together with both hands during coiling. We found this very handy, as it were, and were very impressed at how much easier and more efficient it made the whole process.
4. We can t stress enough that to do spiral coil binding correctly you need to have a pair of crimping pliers, and the PC200E has the foresight to include them in the box. While it s only about a thirty dollar value, it saves the user from having to find a pair of these pliers somewhere, or worse, attempting to finish the binding process without them.
Weaknesses:
1. We thought the handle was a little laborious to use. The machine we tested, in fact had a handle that was designed differently than we have seen in photos of the machine. A lot of similar machines have an extension at ninety degrees that make it just a little bit easier to operate. This is not a big deal for smaller project, but it may increase the tedium and discomfort if the user is going to bind a large number of documents.
2. The twelve to fifteen pages per lift capacity of the PC200E isn t too bad for businesses or organizations that are only going to be binding a few books in an average week. However, that kind of capacity would not be appropriate for larger projects or heavy use.
3. The inclusion of the spiral coil inserter is great, but we found its placement at the top of the machine to be a little bit unwieldy. Other machines place the inserter on the front of the machine where it is more convenient to reach for coil inserting.
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.
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