What should I know about Spiral Coil Binding?

Choosing the right binding system to fit the needs of your organization can be a very difficult task. There are almost a dozen different binding styles available on the market all with their individual strengths. One of the most popular binding styles available today is spiral coil binding and it is growing in popularity every year. This article provides six reasons why companies choose spiral coil for their reports, presentations and proposals. 

1.Flexibility: Spiral coil binding is literally the most flexible binding system available on the market. The flexibility and ability for the spiral coils to remember their shape make it an ideal solution for documents that will be frequently handled or sent through the mail. Twin loop wire elements can become deformed and plastic comb elements can crack or break if bent or crushed. Documents bound with color coil elements do not have either of these problems.

2.Rotation: Spiral coil bound documents allow users to lay documents completely flat on a table or rotate pages 360 degrees for easy copying and note taking. This feature makes spiral coil a popular choice for binding notebooks, calendars and training manuals.

3.Color Choices: Spiral coil binding spines are sometimes called “color coil” because of the variety of available coil colors. Spiral coil is currently available in more than sixty colors making it possible to match coil to almost any company logo or color scheme. The huge variety of specialty colors makes spiral coil a popular choice for graphic designers, schools and for scrapbooking.

4.Length: Spiral coil is one of the only binding options available in custom lengths without incurring significant costs. Both plastic combs and twin loop wire are available in longer or shorter lengths. However, these options have to be custom made and cost significantly more than standard elements. Spiral coil can be ordered in longer or shorter lengths without incurring custom order charges. In fact the cost per inch for custom sizes of coil does not generally change when ordering custom lengths.

5.Available Sizes: Spiral coil binding spines are available in sizes ranging from 6mm up to 50mm. This means that coil can be used for documents that are as small as a few pages and for documents up to 450 pages thick. Although all of these sizes are available it is important to note that large size coils are somewhat difficult to work with. Picture trying to put a slinky on the edge of a book. Spiral coil is much easier to use with books that are less than 1 inch thick.

6.Cost: Spiral coil binding elements tend to be inexpensive. This is especially true of smaller diameter coils which start at less than five cents per spine. Specialty colors of spiral coil can sometime cost a little bit more than the standard colors. The cost per book for spiral binding is one of the lowest of all available binding styles.