Glue and books, an introduction

Glue is a common good in book binding

It is used to structure the spine of a book

You need glue to attach the cover to the spine for a paper back

The end sheets of a hard cover book are glued to the cover

This has been so since the first book was bound

Glue consists for a large portion of water

Water and paper have a problematic relation

And ever shorter production time conflicts with the necessity for glue to dry.

Not every type of glue is suitable for every variety of paper

So you need to know how to apply glue in the binding process.

Basically there are two types of glue: hotmelt and cold glue.

Cold glue is the oldest variety and is like water.

It can only be used with a limited variety of papers and paper weights.

Hotmelt can only be applied on a machine and ‘eats’ all.

PUR is a variety of hotmelt and binds all papers and other materials.