Cloth covers it….. Columbia Finishing Mills, Inc A short story……

Cloth covers it….

Columbia Finishing Mills, IncA short story……

• Located in Cornwall Ontario since 1965 in its 28,000 square foot building, and a proud member of the LBI/HBI for more than 32 years

• Started as a cloth coating mill• Transformed cotton fabric to elegant cover

materials • Processes included dying, sizing, starch coating,

pyroxylin coating,(colour and clear), calendering, and embossing

• Various finishes included natural uncoated surfaces, coated surfaces to imitate leather, and coated linen and vellum finishes

• Coated papers of various calipers with different embossing patterns

Changes

• A decline in the market requirements• Computer technology gradually replaced the

need for encyclopedias• Printed covers which replaced the more

expensive coated cloth and coated papers created a need to make changes at our Canadian operation.

• In 1992, under new management, Columbia Finishing Mills became a converting operation

Current services and equipment

• Emboss cloth and some paper products in three embossing patterns, levant, morocco, and skiver

• Slitting and rerolling of master rolls.

• Sheeting• Albert Jalbert

with 45 years of service

• Cutting and squaring

• Gary Day an employee with 44 years of service

• Rerolling and inspecting

Strengths

• Location• Large inventory of a variety of cover

materials and bindery supplies• Plant employees are cross-trained to

operate all machines• Bilingual staff• Current staff of 10 employees with an

average of 18 years of service, which was a 24-year average 6 months ago

Book cloth in today’s marketa brief history….

• In the mid 19th century, starch coated bookcloth became the main replacement to leather

• Eventually pyroxylin was used as a more resilient coating and later replaced by acrylic coatings for environmental reasons

• Buckram continues to be the primary material used by the Library Bookbinders

• B grade cloths • C grade Imitation leathers• Uncoated cloth (paper supported rayon fabrics, starch

back coated cloth) • 100% cotton, polyblend, rayon

Reasons to use cloth

• Added value

• Elegance

• Touch

• Strength

• Longevity

Ecology

• Traditionally cloth cover materials were either coated with starch or pyroxylin

• Very few products are pyroxylin coated, they are now acrylic coated making them environmentally friendly

• Cotton is an annually renewable resource

• Many cotton based products are biodegradable

End uses

• Archival material• Art books• Bibles• CD cases• Coffee table books• Cosmetic boxes• Diaries

End uses

• Hotel directories• Menus and wine lists• Passports• Photo books• Promotional tools

End uses

• Legal books• Library binding• Ring binders• Sample cases• Slipcases• Trade books• Yearbooks

Decorating methods

• Foil stamping

• Blind embossing

• Screen printing

• Offset printing

• Digital printing