* The Fellowes Quasar E is a full featured electric plastic comb binding machine. It is the electric version of the Quasar-500 manual plastic comb binding machine.
* The Quasar-E offers the same stylish design used in the Fellowes Starlet, Star, Pulsar and Galaxy line of comb binding machines.
* This machine is designed for use with almost all the available sizes of plastic binding combs. It can bind documents with just a few sheets, documents that are 2 inches thick and everything in between. This means that it can be used with both round plastic combs and oval combs.
Strengths / Features:
* The Quasar-E binding machine offers a wonderful contemporary design that allows users to fold the machine flat when it is not in use. The combination of dark gray and silver used on the machine help it to blend in with other office equipment such as desktop printers. It includes a convenient push button punching control and an integrated storage tray / spine measuring device.
* This machine is capable of punching up to twenty sheets of 20lb paper per lift. That is a respectable punching capacity for an electric comb binding punch. The twenty sheet punching capacity combined with the convenient electric punching mechanism makes this machine an excellent value.
* The comb opener on this machine is capable of binding virtually any size of plastic comb available on the market. It can be used with combs as small as 1/4" and as thick as 2". It can open smaller 3/16" plastic combs. However, this machine is not recommended for use with 3/16" combs since it does not have an adjustable depth of punch margin control.
* The vertical punching slot and rotary side margin control make this machine easy to use and set up. Documents can be aligned by simply drop the pages into the slot and tapping them into place against the side margin control. The push button punching control is then conveniently located on the right hand side of the machine.
Weaknesses / Limitations:
* The Quasar E is capable of binding letter sized documents with both small and large plastic combs. However, it is not designed for binding documents that are shorter or longer than eleven inches. It can be adjusted for use with oversize clear covers but it can not be used for legal sized paper (24 holes), A4 size (21 holes) or half letter sized documents (15 holes). Users who need to bind these different sized documents will need to choose a machine that offers an open throat design with disengageable punching pins.
* The storage tray on this machine is useful for measuring your documents and measuring the size of spines that you have on hand. However, tray doesn't hold enough combs to make it very useful. It would have been better to use the space to make the chip tray larger instead of offering storage for a few dozen combs.
* Although this machine offers a stylish design that will fit well inside an office environment, it is made primarily out of plastic. This should not be a problem for most office environments. However, heavy users and production environments should consider a more industrial machine with all metal components.
Recommendation:
* The Fellowes Quasar-E is an excellent choice for users who are looking to purchase a full featured electric plastic comb binding machine for use in a medium sized office.
* It can bind both thin and thick documents using plastic combs and is exceptionally easy to use.
* However, it is not a good choice for users who need to bind documents that are longer or shorter than eleven inches. It is also not designed for high volume production environments.
The GBC CombBind C340 is a newest, manual, plastic comb binding machine available from GBC. The CombBind C340 offers a new, stylishly designed manual punch and other features completely unique to any other plastic comb binding machines. Because of this, and other important factors, the C340 promises to make your binding projects both quicker and easier.
Features:
The GBC CombBind C340 has a variety of unique and useful features, including a document separator The document separator works to speed up punching by separating pages into perfect sections every time. In addition to this technology, the CombBind C340 machine also uses auto-centering technology. This feature can saves a great deal of setup time by eliminating the need to set the paper edge guide before punching. Time-savings features like these are definitely worth their weight in gold - or at least, in productivity.
With a 25 sheet (or more accurately, 22 sheet), punching capacity, it is one of the largest punch-capacities offered by a manual comb-binding machine. This is another highly-desired feature that help the C340 stand out from the crowd. But the features don't end there; the CombBind C340 is made with an ergonomically designed handle. This handle works for those who are left handed or those who are right handed, makes the C340 completely functional to operate for any personnel.
Limitations:
While there are several nice features included in the C340, there are also some limitations. To begin with, there is no depth-of-punch guide. This is critical because without it, you can't choose the distance of the holes from the edge of the paper. In addition, there are no disengageable dies. These disengageable dies allow the machine to punch custom sized sheets. The C340 also is without an open throat design, making it unable to punch legal or A4 sized documents. This does limit the versatility of the machine and should be kept in mind when making your decision.
There are other limitations associated with a manual punching mechanism. Because of its manual punch, the volume that the C340 can handle is limited. This makes the CombBind C340 unsuitable for high volume applications because of the time and inconvenience a manual operation presents.
Finally, although the rotary comb-opener design is functional, it's not as easy to use as the traditional comb opener that uses a handle for operation. This can also add time and aggravation to certain projects and applications and again, should be kept in mind when making a purchasing decision of this kind.
Construction:
The GBC CombBind C340 is fine for occasional use, but it is primarily made of plastic. This makes the machine less durable and therefore, could potentially need replacement much sooner.
There are however, some desirable design traits on this innovative machine. The CombBind C340 has several new features such as a document separator and an auto-centering guide, which are helpful to the binding process. These are the kind of features that many small to midsized organizations are looking for and the ComBind C340 delivers. The CBC CombBind C340, while not ideal of very large corporations with high volume needs, could be perfectly suitable for small to medium sized operations with lower volume needs.
Recommendation:
So, even though there are some definite limitations with the CombBind C340, there are also some unique features that aid in style and functionality. Because of this, the GBC CombBind C340 can be a good choice for routine comb binding and is recommended for that use. With its plastic construction and other limitations, however, it is probably not ideal for higher-volume applications and could not stand up to the challenges of durability and speed that these organizations are looking for.
Both Jeff Mcritchie & Jeff McRitchie are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.