Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Scholar Works Theses Thesis/Dissertation Collections 11-1-1988 Spine preparation: factors affecting optimum linkage of paper and adhesive in adhesive bookbinding Richard Adams Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.rit.edu/theses Recommended Citation Adams, Richard, "Spine preparation: factors affecting optimum linkage of paper and adhesive in adhesive bookbinding" (1988). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Thesis/Dissertation Collections at RIT Scholar Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of RIT Scholar Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Certificate of Approval - Master's Thesis School of Printing Management and Sciences Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, New York CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL MASTER'S THESIS This is to certify that the Master's Thesis of Richard M" Adams, " With a major in Printing Technology has been approved by the Thesis Committee as satisfactory for the thesis requirement for the Master of Science degree at the convocation of November, 1988 Thesis Committee: ___W_"_R_e_b_s_a_m_e_n __ _ Thesis Advisor Joseph L. Noga Graduate Program Coordinator Miles Southworth Director or Designate Statement for Granting Permission to Reproduce and RIT Thesis Title of Thesis: Spine Preparation: Factors Affecting Optimum Linkage of Paper and Adhesive in Adhesive Bookbinding I, RICHARD M. ADAMS, II, hereby grant permission to the Wallace Memorial Library, Rochester Institute of Technology, to reproduce my thesis in whole or in part. Any reproduction will not be for commercial use or profit. Richard M. Adams, II Spine Preparation: Factors Affecting Optimum Linkage of Paper and Adhesive in Adhesive Bookbinding by Richard M. Adams, II, Ph.D. A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the School of Printing Management and Sciences in the College of Graphic Arts and Photography of the Rochester Institute of Technology November, 1988 Thesis Advisor Professor Werner Rebsamen Research Advisor Dr. Charles A. Layne ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The members of my graduate program committee are deserving of thanks for their help with this project. The idea for this study was suggested by my Thesis Advisor, Prof. Werner Rebsamen, who recruited industry collaboration by speaking in the central Swiss dialect of German (as well as English), who stayed up late nights helping to bind books, and who took chapters home with him to comment on results. Considerable help was also provided by my Research Advisor, Dr. Charles A. Layne, who offered many cups of coffee prior to meaty discussions of statistics. My third professor, Prof. Joseph E. Brown, helped with the formulation of hypotheses and the microscopy of paper. Thanks also to Prof. Joseph L. Noga, Graduate Program Coordinator, for interesting me in the Printing Technology Program and for his guidance with Institute policies and procedures, and Prof. Miles Southworth, Director, for the use of facilities in the School of Printing Management and Sciences. My experience in the program was enriched considerably by the two graduate assistantships I held, the first with Prof. Frank J. Cost and the School of Printing Management and Sciences computer lab, the second with Prof. Noga and Mr. Blair Richards in the Electronic Color Imaging Lab. Additional valuable experience was obtained through two independent study projects I did, one with Prof. Robert Chung to perform colorimetric and densitometric calculations with spreadsheet software, the other with Prof. David Pankow, Curator of the Melbert B. Cary Graphic Arts City." Collection, to help prepare the exhibition, "Seed Money in the Flower For technical assistance with this project, thanks are due to two manufacturers of binding equipment: Muller Martini Corporation of Hauppauge, Long Island, New York, particularly Mr. Tom Schwenderer; and Comstock & Wescott of Cambridge, Massachusetts, especially Mr. Lawrence Rowe, Vice President and General Manager. Some of these initial contacts were suggested by Mr. Gerald Mielke, Technical Manager of the Bookbinding Division at Fuller Adhesives, a manufacturer of hotmelt glues. The treatments with Comstock & Wescott equipment were performed by Mr. Joseph Basile of Rand McNally, Indianapolis, Indiana. The scanning electron microscope photography was performed in the College of Science with the help of Prof. Sandy McCormack. Dark-field light microscopy was done in the Biomedical Photographic Communications Laboratory, with many thanks due to Prof. Michael Perez and his laboratory assistant, Mr. Corey Meitchek. Finally, many thanks to the Technical and Education Seminar Center, especially Messrs. Val Johnson, Jim Lawrence, John Peck and Dave Tontarski, for the opportunity to take as well as give seminars. in TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables v List of Figures vi Abstract 1 Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 Theoretical Basis 4 Chapter 3 Literature Review 7 Chapter 4 Hypotheses 20 Chapter 5 Research Design and Methodology ... 22 Chapter 6 Results and Discussion 27 Chapter 7 Conclusions 59 Chapter 8 Suggestions for Further Study .... 67 Bibliography 69 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1 : Characteristics of papers studied .... 22 Table 2: Spine-Roughening Treatments with Page-Pull Values and Duncan Groupings ... 27, 60 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 : Mean Page-Pull Values for Uncoated-Paper Treatments 29 Figure 2: Mean Page-Pull Values Coated-Paper Treatments 29 Figure 3: Surface Area vs. Mean Page-Pull Value for All Uncoated-Paper Treatments .... 31 Figure 4: Surface Area vs. Mean Page-Pull Value for on Treatments 1 , 2, 3, 10, 20, 30 Uncoated Paper 32 Figure 5: Surface Area vs. Mean Page-Pull Value for Treatments 10,16, 24, 48 on Uncoated Paper 32 Figure 6: Correlation of Uncoated and Coated Papers 33 Figure 7: Sensitivity Analysis 37 Figure 8: Production Speed vs. Book Strength ... 39 Figure 9: Scanning Electron Micrographs of Treatments on Uncoated Paper 42 Figure 10: Scanning Electron Micrographs of Treatments on Coated Paper 44 Figure 1 1 : Dark-Field Light Micrographs of Treatments on Uncoated Paper 46 Figure 12: Dark-Field Light Micrographs of Treatments on Coated Paper 48 Figure 13: Dark-Field Light Micrographs of Treatments on Unoated Paper with Glue 50 Figure 14: Dark-Field Light Micrographs of Treatments on Coated Paper with Glue 52 vi ABSTRACT Adhesive bookbinding, a method of holding trimmed pages together in a book using hotmelt glue, offers rapid binding and curing time, but has the disadvantage of poor glue penetration into the paper edges. A weak binding will result unless good linkage can be made between paper and glue, which is the objective of spine-roughening treatments. Eight spine-roughening treatments from three manufacturers were compared on an uncoated and a coated paper stock, against a control treatment of trimmed paper. Treatments were studied by light- and scanning electron microscopic examination of paper edges and by measurement of the mean page-pull values based on samples of 30 or more page-pulls. The results were compared with four hypotheses concerning bookbinding strength. First, when 95 percent confidence intervals were compared, different spine-roughening treatments were found to produce different bookbinding strengths, as measured by mean page-pull value. Specifically, almost all of the treatments produced higher page-pull values than the control, showing that these roughening treatments increased book strength. Some treatments produced significantly higher page-pull values than others, indicating that some roughening treatments were better than others for binding the two papers studied. The results of these tests are summarized in the table at the top of the next page. Secondly, comparing mean page-pull values ranked on the uncoated stock with those of the coated stock, the relatively low correlation of 0.66 indicated that Table of Spinle-Rougheniriig Treatments with Page-Pull Values and Duncan GroLipinas. Ranked bv Uncoated F3aDer Ranked bv Coated PaDer Mean Mean Page-Pull Duncan1 Page-Pull Duncan Treatment Value Groupings Treatment Value Groupings (Control) #1 2.12 lb/in F (Control) #1 0.74 E #48 2.36 F E #2 0.78 E #2 2.62 D E #30 0.95 D #16 2.88 D C #48 1.09 D C #24 3.14 B C #3 1.16 C #20 3.26 B #20 1.20 C #3 3.34 B #16 1.36 B #30 3.42 B #24 1.43 B #10 3.74 A #10 1.61 A 1 Duncan groupings indicate means which are not significantly different. a spine-roughening treatment appropriate for one kind of paper may not be suitable for another kind of paper. One treatment produced the highest page-pul value on both papers, however, indicating that its edge geometry produced a strong bond in both papers studied. Thirdly, two page-pull testers commonly used to measure page pull were compared using the Mandrell Sensitivity Analysis, which considers sensitivity to the measured attribute along with consistency of measurement. The Martini Tester was shown to be approximately 1 .5 times, or barely significantly, more sensitive than the Moffett Tester. Fourthly, three spine-roughening treatments were compared for book treatments edge- strength vs. production speed. Some those in which the weakening effect of pattern undercutting was apparent produced higher page-pull values as production speed increased Chapter 1 Introduction Adhesive binding, perfect binding, patent binding, stitchless binding all these terms refer to a method of binding by gluing leaves of paper together at their edges to form a book. Adhesive binding has historically been regarded as inferior to sewing, the other major binding method, because adhesive binding tests" produced a book lower in strength, as measured by mechanical "torture like page-pull and page-flex tests. However, according to Allan Dry,1 "advances over the last 30 years in glue formulation and application methods have enabled adhesive binders to produce books that are stronger by test than most method." books bound by the Smyth sewing One of the main advantages of adhesive binding is that it is faster and less expensive than sewing.