What is the Best Binding Machine Brand?

There are literally hundreds of manufactures of binding machines in the world, but not all of them are up to snuff. Here at Binding101, we look deep into all of our brands before we offer them to our customers, so we ensure you are only getting the top-quality document binding machines at fair pricing, getting you the most bang for your buck.

With our over 75 years of experience in the document binding industry, we have come across many sub-par brands, as well as some exceptional brands that we love!

In this article, I am going to answer the common question of what the best binding machine brands are. The four brands we will discuss are all world-renowned for their quality, and tested by our Binding101 industry experts to prove their longevity. So without further ado... here we go!

Rhin-O-Tuff:

Rhin-O-Tuff has been in the binding industry for only a short period of time, since 1994, but their long experience of building high performance products (like race cars and motocycles as Whiteman Industries) is the perfect potion for them to build the incredibly high quality binding machine punches that they do. From there, they formed their company called Performance Design, Inc., and their brand, Rhin-O-Tuff.

The Rhin-O-Tuff line of binding punches are all in the heavy duty machinery category, and most popular for print shops and other large businesses that have daily, higher quantity binding needs. What is most unique about them is that they were some of the first to create "disengageable dies" for tabletop binding machines -- this allows the user to have just 1 binding punch machine, but have the ability to punch for any number of binding methods with various punching patterns, hole sizes, hole shapes, etc. by just changing out the punching die.

What we also love about Rhin-O-Tuff is that they made this feature as user-friendly as it could possibly be, using what they call a "quick change die" that easily unlocks and slides out. This means the user can switch from a spiral binding coil punching pattern to a wire-o pattern in just a few seconds...that kind of speed with die change is unheard of; most other machines take 5-15 minutes to change out.

As far as longevity, Rhin-O-Tuff is definitely a stand-out brand; we have customers that purchased their machine 10 years ago and are still using it today. With the proper maintenance care and wearable part replacements, their binding machinery can last a very very long time.

Another wonderful thing about Rhin-O-Tuff brand machines is that they are continuously evaluated and upgraded to meet the new and changing needs of their customers. For example, they recently released their ONYX line of tabletop binding punches that are much quieter than the previous models, making them more versatile as far as placement within businesses; now they can easily be used in an office environment without disturbing staff, opening up a whole new category of potential customers.

Plus, if I can be a little biased here...their logo is a rhino and I am in love with rhinos ❤ if you know anything about rhinos, then you know that they are like big sweet Labrador puppies!

For all these reasons, Rhin-O-Tuff is the best desktop heavy duty binding machine brand.

James Burn:

James Burn has been an industry-leader in the automatic binding machine industry, catering to the industrial side of book binding with customers such as large print businesses and actual binderies. They have over 100 years of experience in the industry, and are known worldwide as James Burn International or JBI. Their primary brand for machinery is called Lhermite (lur-mite), and they also manufacture the most popular binding method for journals and notebooks, called Wire-O. James Burn is known for versatility, speed of bind, and premium industrial quality.

In 2007, a USA company named Spiral Binding acquired the US division of James Burn, which they had been selling as an authorized dealer for many years prior. They are constantly pioneering quality improvements to their machines, designing more innovative and efficient binding equipment because they know that the industry needs are always changing. The James Burn specially trained technicians are a strong and reactive team that works closely with customers and the international division to ensure efficient solutions that keep pace with the demand requirements.

What is so wonderful about the James Burn equipment line is just how durable, fast, and efficient they truly are for high volume workloads. Because the majority of their machinery are floor-models for industrial use, they do often require special training from our technicians prior to use, however, once you finish the training you see just how simple they really are to use, even if they look a little intimidating from the outside to a newbie.

For all these reasons, James Burn is the best industrial binding machine brand.

Coverbind:

Coverbind has been around for over 30 years, and has offered some of the top-quality thermal binding solutions for businesses of all sizes and kinds, including fortune 500 companies, government facilities, schools, hospitals, and many more. They consistently release innovative new equipment with upgrades that can't be found in any other thermal binding machined out there.

In fact, Coverbind is the first and only manufacturer of automatic thermal binding machines, which makes them incredibly unique. They have taken literally the easiest way to bind books and made it even easier (and way faster!) that it was before with their Accel line of automated thermal binding machines. Plus, they have a huge selection of thermal binding covers, which mean that the one machine can handle various soft cover books as well as hard cover books, all with or without windows, with or without printed covers, and so much more.

Just in 2017, Spiral (who, as mentioned before, acquired James Burn USA) partnered with Coverbind, adding even more exceptional quality binding machined to their repertoire.

One of the fantastic things about Coverbind is that their thermal binding covers have a unique glue formulation that makes them stronger than any other thermal binding brand out there. It uses a standard EVA glue, but within the glue is a mesh cotton strip that helps grip your pages and pull them deep into the glue for the most adhesion. In addition, most thermal covers in the past would be real strong on the outer pages, but become looser in the middle...this unique Coverbind thermal binding spine, however, means that the middle pages have the same binding strength as the outside pages, for an all-around stronger bind.

As a company, they are super innovative, making an old thing new and truly taking a form of binding that was kind of...well, dying... and bringing it back to live with a whole new level of quality.

For these reasons, Coverbind is the best thermal binding machine brand on the market.

Akiles:

Akiles Products was established in 1993 as a leader in the binding and lamination industries. Their place in the industry was solidified when customers began replacing their old machines with new Akiles models, and noticing that the quailty was exceptionally better, without having to pay a ton more. Their machines are all real easy to use, and have a variety of cool features that let you customize your book more than many other machines, such as margin depth.

Akiles is our choice for the best office-level binding machine manufacturer. As compared with other brands in the same price range, their quality of machine, durability and longevity of the units, and their capabilities is simply unmatched. Most office binding machine manufacturers build plastic machines that break fairly easily, but Akiles always incorporates strong metal components that make the machines last longer, allow for higher punching capacities, and ensure that you get the highest quality finished bound book possible.

They also have a huge selection to choose from. Now sometimes a big selection is not a good thing, because it gets a bit repetitive and confusing, but in this case, Akiles has a range of machines that offer different features and meet different needs for users -- this means that you can choose a less expensive machine for your small business that might not need all the bells and whistles, or get one with specific added features that expand your capabilities or capacities for your larger business. They don't have annoying overlap that begs the question "what's the difference between the two" because the differences are clear.

We almost always recommend an Akiles binding machine when we speak to our office-level customers, because we truly stand behind their quality of product. Plus, they have a longer warranty than most other manufacturers for the majority of their equipment, showing that they stand behind them too.

With our over 75 years of experience in the industry, we have had the opportunity to experience the best binding machine brands on the market, and this list offers our top-picks for various markets: office-level binding, heavy duty binding, and industrial-level binding. There are a ton of other wonderful brands that have high quality binding machines available, however, these brands set themselves apart from their competition with their efficiency, speed, ease-of-use, and arguably most importantly, their quality. If you have had any experiences with these brands, or if you have any questions, we want to hear from you. Give us a call at (866) 537-2244 to speak with our experts about your experience, or for guidance choosing the best binding machine for your needs.

About the Author • Mallory Morsa is the product expert and content specialist at Binding101, and has been a valued team member since 2008. She started her career here in customer service, moved onto sales supervisor, product management, and then onto content. She takes a hands-on approach to products, and truly gets to know how every item works before she writes about them, with a goal to give you all of the honest information you need to make a confident buying decision. She has a bachelor's degree with a focus on management and marketing, and has been a writer, photographer, and videographer for many years. In her free time, she loves to read by the pool, volunteer at the local animal shelter in the kitten nursery, and snuggle her three furbabies while she binge watches Netflix.