The Akiles DuoMac 531 is the only combination desktop binding system that is designed for use with 5:1 pitch spiral coil and 3:1 pitch twin loop wire.
This high quality machine is excellent for organizations that are looking for a highly durable and versatile binding machine to produce professional documents and reports.
Using the two punching patterns that are produced by this machine it is actually possible to bind your documents with four different binding styles. This is excellent for organizations that want to bind different types of documents with different styles of binding.
Strengths / Features:
The Akiles DuoMac 531 is designed to punch documents with a 5:1 pitch round hole pattern or a 3:1 pitch square hole pattern. The five to one pitch hole pattern is designed to bind your documents with 5:1 pitch tightly wound spiral coil for a highly professional appearance. The three to one pitch punching pattern is normally used with twin loop wire. However, it is also compatible with GBC Proclick binding spines and with 3:1 pitch spiral coil. This provides users with four different options for binding their documents using one machine.
This machine includes a high quality wire closer on the front of the machine. This wire closer can be used to close 3:1 pitch double loop wire spines. These spines are available in sizes ranging from 3/16" up to 9/16" in diameter.
The DuoMac 531 includes two small knobs on the right hand side of the machine. These knobs allow you to adjust how far the holes will be punched from the edge of your paper. For small sized documents you can adjust the holes so that they are closer to the edge. This will ensure that the pages in your presentations will turn freely. However, for larger documents it is a good idea to set the holes so they are further away from the edge of your sheets. This helps to provide strength to your bound proposals and prevents sheets from tearing out of your documents.
The three to one wire binding punch on this machine has fully disengageable dies for punching any sheet length up to fourteen inches. The five to one coil punch includes five strategically placed disengageable punching pins to allow for punching the most common sheet sizes up to 13 inches in length. Both punching throats are open for handling longer paper sizes using a two step process.
The 531 also includes a pair of high quality spiral coil crimping pliers. These pliers are used to help finish your spiral bound documents. The pliers are designed to help cut and crimp the ends of your spiral coil so that the coils don't spin off your bound documents.
Weaknesses / Limitations:
Using 3:1 pitch wire and 5:1 pitch coil it is possible to create highly professional presentations and proposals. However, both of these binding styles are limited in the thickness of books that they can bind. Three to one pitch wire can be used to bind documents up to 9/16" thick. Five to one pitch coil is available in sizes up to 25mm for binding documents up to an inch thick. If you need to bind documents that are larger than one inch you can potentially use three to one pitch coil for this machine. However, if you need to bind a lot of documents that are over an inch thick it might be a good idea to look at one of the other DuoMac binding machines.
Although this machine is designed for binding documents with spiral coil and includes a pair of spiral coil crimpers, it does not include a coil inserter. Akiles suggests that users combine this machine with a Roll @ coil modular spiral coil inserter to help finish documents that are bound with 5:1 pitch coil.
The Duomac 531 is designed to a lot of different things. It is built well and shouldn't break. However, adding all these features to one machine does make it fairly bulky and makes it appear a little bit intimidating. There are a lot of handles and knobs on this machine. It really isn't that difficult to use but users who have never used a binding machine before may get a little bit confused with all of the options.
Recommendation:
If you are looking for the flexibility to bind documents with both five to one spiral coil and three to one pitch spiral coil or GBC Proclick then the DuoMac 531 is the right machine for you.
In fact this is the only desktop binding machine that offers this combination of binding options.
The DuoMac 531 is durable, versatile and practical. It is a great fit for small and medium sized organizations that want the ability to create highly professional reports and presentations that are bound with either wire or coil.
However, users should carefully consider the size limitations of the binding styles offered by the DuoMac 531.
Many users may be better off choosing the DuoMac 431 which binds documents using 4:1 pitch coil and 3:1 pitch wire. Four to one pitch coil is more commonly available and comes in a wider variety of sizes. However, it is not as tightly wound and some users prefer the look of 5:1 spirals.
Overview:
The Akiles Duomac 521 is a combination binding system that is designed to provide users the choice between three completely different binding styles.
It provides the ability to produce two different hole patterns allowing users to choose the style of binding that they prefer for different types of documents within their organization.
The Duomac 521 is known for its rugged metal construction and for the huge variety of options that it provides to its users.
These things make this machine an excellent choice for companies that are looking for a durabable, versatile and professional binding machine to produce their documents.
Strengths / Features:
The DuoMac 521 is capable of producing two completely different hole patterns. One punching throat is designed to punch a 5:1 pitch hole pattern that is designed for use with five to one pitch spiral coil binding. The other punching throat is designed to punch a 2:1 pitch rectangular hole pattern that is designed for use with 2:1 pitch double loop wire. However, the two to one pitch hole pattern can also be used to bind large sized books using 0.400 2.5:1 pitch spiral coils. This means that the Duomac 521 can be used to bind documents with three completely different binding styles.
This machine offers a thirteen inch punching throat with five disengageable dies for 5:1 pitch coil binding. This makes it possible to use this machine to punch all of the most common paper sizes with a round hole 5:1 pitch pattern.
The 2:1 pitch punching throat is fourteen inches in length and offers fully disengageable dies. This design allows users to punch virtually document length up to 14" with a one step punching process.
Both throats on the DuoMac 521 are open ended. This allows for punching longer documents using a two step process.
This machine has a high quality heavy duty wire closer on the front of the machine. This wire closer is capable of closing 2:1 pitch wires that are as small as 3/16" and as large as 1-1/4". The construction of this wire closer is excellent and it shouldn't slip or become uneven over time. The front of the wire closer also has a wire hanger which is designed to help in adding pages to your wire binding spines.
The Duomac-521 also includes a high quality pair of coil crimping pliers. These pliers can be used for finishing your documents using 5:1 pitch spiral coil. However, a pair of special premium oval hole pliers are suggested for crimping 2.5:1 pitch coil since the holes are so much larger. Oval hole pliers will produce a longer throw to help prevent the coils from spinning back off your documents.
Weaknesses / Limitations:
Although this machine includes most of the components that you need in order to bind your documents, it does not include a spiral coil inserter. For users that need to bind one or two documents with coil, it is possible to spin the spines onto your pages by hand. However, if you are going to bind documents with 5:1 pitch coil on a regular basis you will definitely want to look into a modular coil inserter such as the Akiles Roll @ Coil. Unfortunately, you will need to spin 2.5:1 pitch coils on by hand even if you own a coil inserter.
Each of the binding styles offered by this system have size limitations. Two to one pitch wire is available in sizes from 1/4" up to 1-1/4" in diameter. Five to one pitch spiral coil is available in sizes from 6mm up to 25mm (about one inch). For binding larger sized documents, 2.5:1 pitch coil is available in sizes from 20mm up to 56mm in diameter.
Both 5:1 pitch coil and 2.5:1 pitch spiral coil are not extremely common. In fact they are normally made to order and can take a few days to run. If you are planning on binding documents with these supplies you will want to make sure that you allow yourself plenty of time for ordering so that you aren't caught without supplies to complete your job.
The DuoMac 521 is a great machine with a lot of features. However, adding all of these features to this machine make it fairly complex to use and understand. It is clearly labeled and with a little bit of time almost anyone can use this machine. It is just a little bit intimidating when you first look at it.
Recommendation:
Users who are looking for a binding machine that can handle both 2:1 pitch wire and 5:1 pitch coil will find that the DuoMac 521 is really the only machine available anywhere to meet their needs.
It is built well, has a number of great features and is actually fairly easy to use once you figure out what the different knobs and handles do.
However, combining a 5:1 pitch coil punch and a 2:1 pitch wire machine is a little bit odd. If it fits your needs or you really like the look of five to one pitch coil then this is a great machine for you. If it were me, I would probably choose the DuoMac 421 which offers the same features but works with 4:1 pitch coil instead of 5:1 pitch coil. The supplies will be cheaper and easier to find.