A machine is described for covering book covers and sealing envelopes or articles of various kind. The machine comprises a fixed lower base suitable for resting a sheet of flexible plastic material for an article to be covered, an upper part movable towards said base and a heatable blade accommodated in the upper part to execute soldering of the overlapped ends of the plastic material sheet along the article edges when the upper part is approached to the lower base. The machine comprises an electric motor, a control member accessible from the outside of the machine for operating the electric motor and movement transmission means acting on the sides of the upper part to induce, at every activation of the electric motor, movement of the upper part towards the lower base for executing the soldering of the ends of the plastic material sheet.

A machine is described for covering book covers and sealing envelopes or articles of various kind. The machine comprises a fixed lower base suitable for resting a sheet of flexible plastic material for an article to be covered, an upper part movable towards said base and a heatable blade accommodated in the upper part to execute soldering of the overlapped ends of the plastic material sheet along the article edges when the upper part is approached to the lower base. The machine comprises an electric motor, a control member accessible from the outside of the machine for operating the electric motor and movement transmission means acting on the sides of the upper part to induce, at every activation of the electric motor, movement of the upper part towards the lower base for executing the soldering of the ends of the plastic material sheet.

A device for manufacturing a book on demand, including a cover printing or receiving station designed to respectively print or receive a cover, a body printing or receiving station designed to respectively print or receive a body, a binding station designed to join together the body and the cover, a conveyor designed and/or programmed to convey the cover and/or the body between the different stations, the device is designed to deposit glue in a gluing region on the verso of the cover inside the binding station before the cover and the body are joined together by gluing, forming a book.

A creasing device is provided that includes a counter-rotating male drum and female drum. The male drum carries a conventional creasing ring with a central rib flanked by shoulders. The female drum comprises a central channel aligned with the creasing rib on the male drum; and a pair of projecting lateral ribs on each side of the central channel that are aligned with the shoulders on the male drum. The lateral ribs press a sheet of the card or paper stock against the shoulders of the creasing ring to better define the edges of the crease and to reduce the tendency of a printed coating on the stock to crack during subsequent folding. The pair of lateral ribs may be provided by a pair of inserts. Alternatively, both ribs and the central channel may be provided by a single insert.

A u-shaped binding element comprising a u-shaped element main body made of steel material or aluminium alloy which is molded by a tension process, wherein one or two up ends of the u-shaped element main body is or are wrapped with anti-drop adhesive tape; wherein if one up end of the u-shaped element main body is winded with the anti-drop adhesive tape, a single-side molding body is formed; if two ends of the u-shaped element main body are covered with are respectively winded with the anti-drop adhesive tape, a double-side molding body is formed, a wrapage is covered on an external surface of the single-side molding body or the double-side molding body to form the u-shaped binding element. Utilizing the binding sleeve and a binding machine is capable of quickly completing text sheet binding and effectively solving the first requirement of binding: convenient and reliable, so as to make the binding more reliable, fast and convenient.

A u-shaped binding element comprising a u-shaped element main body made of steel material or aluminium alloy which is molded by a tension process, wherein one or two up ends of the u-shaped element main body is or are wrapped with anti-drop adhesive tape; wherein if one up end of the u-shaped element main body is winded with the anti-drop adhesive tape, a single-side molding body is formed; if two ends of the u-shaped element main body are covered with are respectively winded with the anti-drop adhesive tape, a double-side molding body is formed, a wrapage is covered on an external surface of the single-side molding body or the double-side molding body to form the u-shaped binding element. Utilizing the binding sleeve and a binding machine is capable of quickly completing text sheet binding and effectively solving the first requirement of binding: convenient and reliable, so as to make the binding more reliable, fast and convenient.

A book assembly system comprising: a cover arrangement, having a support member for supporting a binder arrangement in an assembled configuration; a binder arrangement, having: a spine bar for carrying picture members, the spine bar having a spine portion interposing first and second holding portions, wherein the support member is arrangeable in the assembled configuration with: a corresponding side portion to adjoin the spine portion of the spine bar, and; corresponding first and second interconnecting portions to adjoin the respective first and second holding portions of the spine.

An image forming apparatus determines whether crease processing at a plurality of portions set on the sheet includes crease processing on two, front and back surfaces of the sheet; determines, if it is determined that crease processing includes crease processing on the two surfaces of the sheet, whether a connected post-processing apparatus that performs crease processing on a sheet can perform crease processing on the two, front and back surfaces of the sheet by one feeding; and controls, if it is determined that the connected post-processing apparatus cannot perform crease processing on the two surfaces by one feeding, to change, to one of the front and back surfaces of the sheet based on attribute information of the sheet, a surface to be processed in crease processing at the plurality of portions.

An image forming apparatus determines whether crease processing at a plurality of portions set on the sheet includes crease processing on two, front and back surfaces of the sheet; determines, if it is determined that crease processing includes crease processing on the two surfaces of the sheet, whether a connected post-processing apparatus that performs crease processing on a sheet can perform crease processing on the two, front and back surfaces of the sheet by one feeding; and controls, if it is determined that the connected post-processing apparatus cannot perform crease processing on the two surfaces by one feeding, to change, to one of the front and back surfaces of the sheet based on attribute information of the sheet, a surface to be processed in crease processing at the plurality of portions.

An automatic plasticizing equipment (17) for image sheets (26) comprises a first plasticizing device (27) and an electronic control unit (22) for the plasticizing device and in which the first plasticizing device employs a first plasticizer film (28) unwinding from a first film spool (29). The plasticizing equipment (17) processes image sheets (26) with associated enhanced sheet codes (ESC), readable by machine, having dimension and finishing information associated to said image sheets (26). The equipment (17) further comprises a second plasticizing device (41), downstream of the first plasticizing device (27) for a second plasticizer film (42) of different typologies unwinding from a second film spool (43) for pre-forming plasticized image sheets (31, 44) of different typologies; and the electronic control unit (22) responds to the dimension and finishing information from the enhanced sheet codes (ESC) for selectively activating the first plasticizing device (27) or the second plasticizing device (41) or to leave the plasticizing devices deactivated so as to obtain plasticized image sheets (31, 44) of different typologies of plasticization or non-plasticized image sheets (46).