VIP Production Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

Q. What is a casemade binder?

A. Sometimes called a turned-edge binder, casebound binder or hardbound binder, casemade binders are constructed with a wide variety of non-vinyl cover material that is glued to and wrapped around chipboard.
Q. How is a vinyl binder made?: A. Vinyl binders are made using vinyl material for the outside and inside. Board is placed between the cover and liner materials and the vinyls are heatsealed together using special dies in a dielectric machine using heat and radio frequency waves. This process requires no gluing. For more information about what vinyl is, how it's made and as it relates to the environment, visit The Vinyl Institute.
Q. What is the main difference between casemade and vinyl binders?: A. Casemade binders are generally made with a paper, cloth, leather or canvas type material that is glued to board with the edges folded around the board and then a liner is glued to the inside to cover the raw board.
Q. What is a poly binder?: A. Poly binders are made with a hard plastic type material. Polyethylene is more commonly used although polypropylene (more rigid) is also used. The binders are made by die-cutting the shape of the binder and spine hinges are scored to create spine. Poly binders are extremely durable and can withstand high temperatures.
Q. How can I decorate my binders?: A. Many decorating options are available, including screen-print, foil stamp, stamp/deboss, blind deboss, appliqué, offset/litho printing and digital printing. Not all for these processes are suitable for every project, so check with your sales representative or the creative team at Vulcan to see which technique best fit your product.
Q. How can I decorate a casemade binder?: A. Casemade binders can be decorated by screen-print, foil stamp, stamp/deboss, blind deboss, offset/litho, digital printing.
Q. How can I decorate a vinyl binder?: A. Vinyl binders can be decorated by screen-print, foil stamp, stamp/deboss, blind deboss, offset/litho, digital printing, clear overlay prints, appliqué, appliqué entrapments.
Q. How can I decorate a poly binder?: A. Poly binders can be decorated by Screen-print, foil stamp, digital printing, offset/litho (on thinner gauges).
Q. What is the function of the Assembly Department?: A. The main function of our Assembly Department is to insert metals in binders. Along with latches, handles or other production involving hardware.
Q. What is the most common tab extension size?: A. 1/2” tab extension on an 11x8-1/2” sheet size.
Q. What material is used to reinforce the holes punched on index tabs?: A. Mylar.
Q. What is the weight of our most commonly used index tab paper?: A. 90lb index.
Q. What is a bank of index tabs?: A. A bank is a single row of tabs; e.g., a 4-cut bank has 4 tabs across, 2 banks of 4 is two rows of 4 tabs, a total of 8 tabs.
Q. When referring to index tabs, what is a cut?: A. Cut is the number of tabs in a bank. The length of the tabs is determined by the number of tabs in a bank; e.g., 4-cut has 4 tabs, each 2-1/2" in length. The more tabs in a bank, the smaller the width of each tab.
Q. Are stock index tabs available for online purchase or do I have to call to place an order?: Yes, you can place your order online for stock index tabs .
Q. Are custom index tabs available for online purchase as well or do I have to call to place an order?: A. Yes, you can place your order directly online for custom index tabs .
Q. Are stock binders available for online purchase or do I have to call to place an order?: A. Yes, stock clear overlay binders and stock eco-friendly binders are available for online purchase, along with lots of other shop online products.
Q. Are custom index tabs available for online purchase as well or do I have to call to place an order?: A. Yes, you can place your order directly online for custom index tabs .
Q. What is a rivet?: A. Rivets are used to fasten ring metals to the binders. Rivets appear as 2 small round pieces of metal on the outside of the spine or back cover of binders. On some binders, you may order hidden (concealed) rivets.
Q. Is there a type of metal that does not require rivets?: A. Prong bushing metal does not require rivets. This style is designed to fasten to board without rivets, allowing the binder design to stretch uninterrupted across the cover.
Q. What is the term used when measuring the thickness of vinyl and other materials?: A. Gauge.
Q. What is the term used in measuring board thickness?: A. Point.
Q. What is a “Color Smear”?: A. This is also sometimes referred to as an ink “draw-down”. It is a printed sample of selected ink color printed on actual sample of selected material for customer to review colors prior to production.
Q. Is there a charge for “Color Smears?”: A. No. There is not a charge and generally can be done within 24 to 48 hours.
Q. Why does Vulcan not recommend screen-printing large panels of screen tints?: A. In the process of screen-printing, specs and flaws in printing large panels are easily visible. In some cases we recommend printing an additional lighter shade of the same color as a solid.
Q. What is a bleed?: A. A bleed is when artwork or printing falls off the edge of final product. In the case of binders, artwork through the spine hinges is also considered a bleed. A bleed requires printing on oversize material and then trimming, welding or wrapping afterwards.
Q. Can my artwork bleed if I’m foil stamping?: A. Yes and No, depending on the product. Yes, we can bleed foil on paper and casemade/turned edge products. No, we cannot bleed foil off vinyl products due to heatseal process.
Q. What is a “choke and spread”?: A. When screen-printing a light color on a dark base material, white ink can be layed down first and light color overprinted. Using this method, we can produce a clean bright color on darker substrates. The white is made thinner (choked) and the lighter color is made slightly fatter (spread) to ensure proper registration on press. In so doing there will be a slightly darker outline all around artwork where light ink prints on darker base material. Not all artwork can be printed using this method. Artwork must be approved by our art department prior to production.
Q. What is an appliqué and can any artwork be reproduced using this method?: A. An appliqué is a method of decorating on vinyl products. A special die is made in the shape of supplied artwork that is a combination cutting and sealing die. Using this die, a piece of vinyl is heat-sealed onto a base vinyl. The die seals the shape of the artwork onto the base vinyl and then the excess surrounding vinyl is then removed leaving the shape of the artwork. Not all artwork can be reproduced using this method. It depends on detail and how complicated the art is. Artwork must be approved by our art department prior to production.
Q. What are the two types of inks we use?: A. UV (ultraviolet) and Conventional. UV inks must be dried with special ultraviolet lamps, conventional inks can be heat or air dried.
Q. What type of ink does Vulcan use the most?: A. UV inks. UV inks are more efficient in production.
Q. Which ink is more efficient in production and why?: A. UV inks are more efficient. The main reason is UV inks do not dry in the screens. This allows the press operator to continue running without stopping to clean ink out of screens.
Q. What are the major differences in U.V. and Conventional Inks?: A. Conventional inks can dry with heat or air-dry, UV inks will only dry when exposed to ultraviolet light. Conventional inks are generally more opaque than UV inks.
Q. What type of ink is used for larger production runs?: A. UV.
Q. Can you use conventional inks for large production runs?: A. Yes, but requires special quote and may be cost prohibitive due to slow production time.
Q. What type of ink is used for screen-printing screen-tints or halftones?: A. Only UV inks are used. Because the ink does not dry in the screen, the printing is more consistent and production is more efficient.
Q. Since UV inks are not as opaque, how can I get a bright red on a black binder?: A. You can do a choke and spread.
Q. Can the Ultra-tech (Spider) screening machines run conventional ink?: A. No. The Ultra-techs have UV ink dryers only, no heat dryers.
Q. What is the name of the automated equipment that constructs casemade binders?: A. Crathern .
Q. What is a “handcrafted” casemade binder?: A. When Vulcan produces a binder using 3 boards (front, spine and back), by hand, without automated equipment.
Q. What kind of corners do vinyl binders have?: A. Round corners.
Q. What kind of corners do casemade binders produced on the automated Crathern equipment have?: A. Square corners.
Q. What are some ways to decorate options direct on vinyl?: A. Screen-print spot and process color, foil stamp and/or deboss, appliqué, offset/litho and digital printing using new Durst wide format UV Inkjet technology.
Q. What are the 3 types of european hinge options?.: A. Flat, Semi (euro-4) and round
Q. What is another name for a casemade binder?: A. Turned-edge, casebound or hardbound .
Q. What is the name of the automated, high-speed machine used to manufacture vinyl binders?: A. FIAB (made in Sweden).
Q. Is there someone at your production plant to check on my job?: A. Yes, every field sales representative has a coordinator (CSR) at our plant in Vincent, Alabama to coordinate and follow your order through production. And our telesales staff is also based in our production plant, providing the same service of following your order through every step of production.

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VIP Production Frequently Asked Questions and Answers