Book binding quality problems and solutions (on)

In order to meet the increasing spiritual and cultural needs of the general public, China’s publishing and printing industry has a strong momentum of development. The number and type of book publications have been increasing year after year. In 2002, 171,000 kinds of books were published, and in 2003 about 190,000 kinds, and the quality of book binding was increased. The requirements are getting higher and higher. The printing industry has greatly improved its printing technology and production capacity in order to meet the needs of the publication of books and periodicals. Some large companies have added new equipment and introduced new technologies and materials to shorten the book publishing cycle and improve the printing of books. The quality of the binding has made a great contribution.

In spite of this, the quality of book printing is still not optimistic. In particular, the quality of bookbinding needs to be solved urgently. This article just to do a preliminary discussion and analysis of the current common binding quality issues.

Book binding quality status
In order to guarantee the quality of books, on the one hand, the relevant quality inspection departments require the major printing and printing companies to send inspection books on time. On the other hand, the quality inspection departments of the state's books and periodicals directly conduct random inspections on the market to understand the quality of book printing. Judging from the test results of the Printed Products Supervision and Inspection Center of the General Administration of Press and Publication, the current overall level of books in China is not high, there are many problems in the accuracy of text, printing ink, and binding quality, and even the media often publishes errors about books and texts. Open plastic pages, missing posts less posts report.

Among the books with quality problems, the quality of substandard products due to post-press binding accounted for more than 60%, such as the folds of the characters appearing folds; misprints, in-line posts, multiple posts, less posts; glue binding There are page breaks, uneven books, and post lines; the cover is curled, the film is opened, and the wrinkles are opened; the hardcover case shell is warped. From this we can see that the binding problem is dragging on the quality of books, and it also reflects that the current level of post-press binding in China is lagging behind.

Analysis of binding quality problems
There are reasons for the quality problems of book binding, and most of them are caused by the collaboration of publishers and printing companies, the management of printing companies, and unreasonable and unscientific technology.

1, the book cycle is not scientific
Market competition is becoming fiercer, and so is the book market. In order to occupy the market share, publishers will shorten the book publishing cycle to an infinite extent, especially in the printing and binding stages, and some even require one or two days to book. In such a short period of time, it is natural to go to a book to reduce or shorten the processing of some processes. For example, a paperback book starts to collate without compaction of the binding sheet; Page layout; cover film is not enough time to cut the cover. This kind of production method makes the books and periodicals not be able to perform according to the normal operation procedure; The employee is tired of working overtime and will naturally have more quality problems. This also reflects that some publishers are currently eager for quick success and only attach importance to the economic benefits of the publishing house and do not attach importance to the quality of printing and binding.

2, improper use of materials
In order to reduce costs, publishers use low-price papers with rough surfaces, inconsistent whiteness, and falling powder. Even some coated papers are foamed and layered; on the other hand, they lower the wages and squeeze profits from printing and binding. Space, resulting in some printing and binding companies in order to survive, had to buy inferior binding materials or inappropriate materials, resulting in book binding quality problems. For example, due to the quality of adhesives not meeting the standards or not changing according to the seasons, the adhesives of coated paper and plain paper are mixed, resulting in frequent failure of binding of the pages.
3, equipment failure and manual operation are not standardized
Due to the large number of equipment involved in the binding process, general enterprises, especially small-scale binding enterprises in townships and towns, have no ability to configure all equipment. Many processes are still completed by manually operated or extremely low-level automation equipment. The operation is not standardized and there are too many variable factors. Lead to bookbinding quality problems. Such as hand-folded four-fold page does not break, it will produce eight-folded folds; hand-locked lines will not evenly produce book block quality problems; some of the binding plant does not have three-sided knife, use big knife to cut the book, so that the book back break; hardcover on the shell without mold It is difficult to ensure the quality and consistency of the product by hand rinsing with a round back.

4, workers of low quality, uneven technical level
Except for some large printing companies, many small and medium-sized printing companies do not do their own binding. Most of them are completed by private enterprises in townships, making post-press binding a intensive process with low output value, low profit, and high labor intensity. Workers in these enterprises have low cultural quality and lack formal training. Second, they do not attach importance to product quality. In addition, there are many manual operations in the bookbinding. To get a good job, you must have certain operating experience to achieve a higher level of technology. However, there are small-sized bookbinding companies. Because of their low salary and high liquidity, there are a large number of newcomers who learn from scratch every year. The technology does not have continuity and the quality is naturally not guaranteed.

(to be continued)