Integrated Bindery Systems
Using the IBIS Smart-binder
Download ECL booklets Data Sheet
The IBIS Smart-binder presents an ideal way to produce 'Extended Content Label' booklets from digital printed sheets.
Video: SB producing ECL label booklets
IBIS Smart-binders are used for ECL production for the following reasons:
IBIS offer the Smart-binder with our unique and patented option ISG‑cold glue system
Cold-glue binding is essential for many ECLs, for example in the pharmaceutical and agro-chemical industries. The use of conventional wire stitching is not an option for these label booklets.
Most label manufacturers insist on using ISG cold glue to bind their ECLs instead of wire stitching for the following reasons:
a) High Quality
A higher-quality binding alternative to wire-stitching
b) Improved booklet 'lay-flat'
ISG cold glue binding gives improved booklet 'lay-flat', which helps subsequent processing of these labels and attachment to the product container.
Booklets with ISG cold glue (left) and conventional stitching (right)
c) Lack of wire in booklets
The lack of wire in the booklet is important (and essential in some cases) for labels that are attached to product containers. Glue-bound labels are easier to recycle if they do not contain wire staples
d) Ease of use
The ISG cold glue system is easier to use and to maintain compared with wire stitch heads
Each label must contain the correct data relating to the product to which it is attached. Each type of ECL label (for a specific product) may have an individual ID number in the printed bar code (or 2D Datamatrix code) on each sheet.
The Smart-binder reads these sheet codes and uses its sophisticated integrated sheet and booklet tracking system and sensors to monitor the status of each Label booklet and automatically reject any ‘bad’ booklets. The Smart-binder control PC retains log files containing production data relating to each booklet produced, or rejected. The production log files may be viewed externally with a network connection if required. If any booklets are missing on the delivery then these must be reprinted. The optional Smart‑data Analysis System SDA-100 assists with the upstream interface to enable this automatic reprinting of any missing Labels.
Many ECL labels have a small format size because of the small dimensions of the product to which they are subsequently attached. For this reason the Smart-binder can be supplied with special modifications to reduce the minimum booklet width to 75mm (measured from the spine to the front edge).
Video of the Smart-binder producing75mm wide ECL labels
Very short spine lengths can be achieved very efficiently by printing multiple booklets together (multi-up). For example, six ECLs with a 2" spine length may be printed on a 12" long sheet. The resulting 12" long booklet is then split into the 6 individual booklets after exiting the Smart-binder. Note that booklets with spine lengths between 95 and 160mm may be produced 2-up without needing any further trimming, by using the optional Smart-binder Trimmer‑Center Knife
The additional Book Splitter Trimmer TP-100 may be added to the Smart-binder delivery to cut long booklets into multiple short booklets of any required length.
ECL labels often require a low stock weight material in order to minimize the overall label thickness and in some cases to assist it to bend around the product to which it is attached. The Smart-binder can be offered to run stocks as light as 40-45gsm.
Some ECLs may require tabs on the front cover as shown below:
The tabbed cover may be fed from the optional Smart-binder Cover Feeder providing that the stock weight is not too low.
Video of the Smart-binder producing ECL booklets with a tab on front cover
Alternatively the additional Rosas tabbing machine may be added to the Smart-binder delivery to reduce the booklet width and cut tabs into the outside cover on one side.
Machine 'availability' (up-time) is of course important for all ECL label production. The Smart-binder is a very heavy-duty system designed to operate 24/7 with the minimum of maintenance and with the highest possibility reliability.
Some ECLs may need to be produced in very small job quantities. The Smart-binder allows the number of pages in the ECL to change between one job and the next without stopping, under bar-code control.
IBIS Smart-binder 'Plus HS'
View the IBIS Smart‑binder system in operation on our website.
Each of the following customers use the IBIS Smart-binder exclusively to produce ECL booklets:
(name withheld for confidentiality reasons)
XYZ have purchased IBIS Smart-binders to produce ECL booklets at multiple locations around the world, fed both off-line from a sheet feeder and also near line from a roll unwinder and web cutter. They have also developed a special system to provide cover 'tabbing'.
Codex purchased an off-line Smart-binder system with ISG cold-gluing in 2020.
Janos Toth, Production Manager, comments:
IBIS Smart-binder at Codex, Hungary
Our new IBIS Smart-binder SB-3 was installed here at Codex just outside Budapest in the spring of 2020. The machine processes our digitally-printed sheets using its integral high-pile sheet feeder and we are pleased with the SB-3 performance and robust design.
The SB-3’s ability to produce large volumes of high value, high quality pharmaceutical booklets, instruction manuals and label booklets at high speeds is critical to our business. The SB-3’s patented ISG cold-glue binding process gives good bind strength and booklet lay-flat, so is popular with our label customers 
Decomatic purchased an off-line Smart-binder in 2023 with special modifications to reduce the minimum ECL booklet width to 75mm and to feed tabbed covers from the cover feeder. This system includes the optional Smart-binder trimmer center-knife.