Matching the Hole Pattern for Rebinding a Bound Document

Published on August 10th, 2008

A few times a month I will get a call from someone looking to rebind a document that has begun to fall apart. Sometimes they are looking to add pages, sometimes to subtract pages or sometimes they are simply looking to replace a binding element that has become old and worn. However, most of the time these individuals have a hard time knowing exactly what type of binding style to choose for use with their documents. This article is designed to provide a quick overview of the different hole patterns used for binding documents. Before you read on, you might want to count the number of holes used on your document since each of the hole patterns will be identified by the number of holes that it uses along an 11" edge of a piece of paper.

  1. Plastic Comb Binding uses 19 rectangular shaped holes spaced evenly along the edge of the document. This hole pattern is also used with GBC ZipBind.

  2. Twin loop wire binding uses one of two different hole patterns.

    • 3:1 pitch twin loop wire binding uses a hole pattern with 32 holes along the eleven inch edge of the document. These holes are more often than not slightly rectangular but are sometimes round.

    • 2:1 pitch twin loop wire binding uses a hole pattern with 21 holes along the eleven inch edge of the document. Holes for 2:1 pitch wire binding are usually square but are sometime round.

    • Plastic Spiral coil is generally used on documents with either 43 or 44 holes along the eleven inch side. This type of spiral coil pattern would be called 4:1 pitch coil (since it has 4 holes per inch). However, a few users will use a 54 or 55 hole pattern with 5:1 pitch spiral coil. This is somewhat unusual but is used by some commercial printers.

    • GBC Velobind uses a hole pattern with eleven small round holes along the eleven inch side of the document. Velobind is also available in an 4 hole pattern and a 6 hole pattern. However, the holes for 4 pin, 6 pin and 11 pin Velobind binding all line up making it possible to interchange these strips using 11 pin paper.

    • GBC SureBind uses a hole pattern with 10 small round holes along the 11 inch edge of the document. These holes are not equally spaced like Velobind but instead are spaced unevenly so that users of SureBind can use the 19 hole Comb Bind pattern with their machine.
    • GBC Proclick uses the same 3:1 pitch hole pattern that is used with 3:1 pitch twin loop wire. However, users of the GBC Proclick Pronto use a special 3:1 pitch hole pattern that has 32 large oversized square holes. These oversized holes make it easier for the Proclick Pronto to insert the Proclick binding spines onto the edge of the document.

      • These six different hole patterns are the most common patterns used for binding documents today. However, if you have a document that uses a different hole pattern it may be possible to find a binding style that is compatible. Just remember, it never hurts to ask.

      Jeff McRitchie is the designer and Director of Marketing for MyBinding.com. He has written over 100 articles on binding machines, binding supplies, laminators, laminating supplies, binding covers, paper handling equipments, binders, index tabs, and shredders.

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