News at Houchen Bindery Ltd.

 

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May 25, 2010

 

It is always a sad day when a friendly competitor can no longer remain in business.  The economic squeeze of rising costs, and the decision to not purchase more modern equipment has caused the owners of Texas Bindery Services to decide to cease operations.  To assimilate the customers from such a custom operation as TBS is a daunting task, but one we are well-equipped to take on.  We have successfully acquired over a dozen binderies in our 33 years of operation, and our team is committed to making this transition as smooth as possible.

 

So what can you expect as a former customer of TBS?  Houchen Bindery Ltd will have the binding database transferred from their site to ours shortly.  We will do everything we can to match your previous bindings and turnaround times, at the same price as before.  We run our own delivery vehicles in the same area of Texas as TBS, and of course the mail in traffic and comic books can be handled as easily from our location as theirs.  Please look over our website to learn more about how we can serve you.

 

The larger libraries will be contacted soon and asked to complete a Customer Profile questionnaire that will ensure our facility produces your orders to your exact specifications.

 

If you have further questions please contact Angel Dale at

email@houchenbindery.com or 800 869 0420

 

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February 15, 2010

 

Heartland Print Gallery

 

Each year, the Printing Industry of the Midlands holds an awards banquet called the Heartland Print Gallery.  In 2009, Houchen Bindery, Ltd. entered four book projects into the 2010 Heartland Print Gallery awards competition.  On January 30th, 2010 at the awards banquet held in La Vista, NE, Houchen Bindery, Ltd. was awarded two Gold awards and one Silver award.

 

Houchen Bindery Ltd. won a Gold award for Foil Stamping (Ward's Results book), a Gold and Silver award for digital printing work on two different children's books we produced. 

 

        

 

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October 29, 2009

 

Houchen Bindery Beginning Professional Award

 

For the last 25 years Houchen Bindery Ltd has sponsored the Beginning Professional award with the Nebraska New Members Roundtable group at the Nebraska Library Association.  The award is given to a beginning librarian or media specialist who has made significant contributions to their library in the early stages of their career.  Also in conjunction with the NMRT, Houchen Bindery Ltd has sponsored their Mentor of the Year award.  Both awards feature a cash stipend funded by the Bindery.

 

At the October 2009 meeting, Houchen Bindery Ltd President H. Damon Osborne was awarded a plaque in recognition of those contributions.  Houchen Bindery is proud to be a sponsor of these awards and looks forward to many more years collaborating with the NLA.

 

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August 21, 2009

 

Each year, Houchen Bindery recognizes and thanks team members for their commitment by awarding Savings Bonds to those who have reached 5-year milestones with the company. 

 

Congratulations to some of our long-time team members. Houchen Bindery appreciates all your years of service and looks forward to many more!

 

Ann Kosek - 25 years

Angie Pekarek - 20 years

Terry Burtis-Wolfe - 15 years

Vicki Carroll - 15 years

Dan Kallhoff - 15 years

Linda Watson - 10 years

Linda Davis - 5 years

Cathy Houston - 5 years

Cathy Janousek - 5 years

Melissa Kleitsch - 5 years

Ed Millsap - 5 years

Bernie Stych - 5 years

 

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July 25, 2009

 

Houchen Bindery Gives Centennial Backpack Program a Lift

 

This summer the Houchen Bindery team worked to raise funds to help jump start the Utica Centennial School Backpack Program. The program is similar to others around the country, where backpacks full of food are given to students who qualify for free/reduced price lunches. Houchen Bindery teamed up with Centennial High School’s FFA chapter to host a pancake feed to raise money. The proceeds from the event, put on with the help of The Pancake Man (http://www.pancakeman.net/) combined with free-will donations from Houchen team members to raise $1910.70 for the new program.  Congratulations to the Houchen Bindery team for helping make a difference in the Utica community.

Houchen Bindery team members, from left, Nancy Mogee, Sara Ogren, Damon Osborne and, right, Connie Osborne and Centennial FFA member Sid Kment, second from right, present donations for the Centennial backpack program to program coordinator Shannon Henry.  The above picture appeared in the York News-Times on August 26, 2009.

 

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March 18, 2009
 

Houchen Bindery Ltd would like to inform all our ABLE and LARS customers that in May of 2009, ICG-Holliston the producer of our F-Grade Buckram cloth will no longer produce 5 colors.  These colors are 488, 494, 538, 719 and 958.  We have designated replacements for the colors and you can find more information here: F-Grade Buckram List.

 

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January 2009

 

Houchen Bindery Adds New Perfect Binder:

 

Houchen Bindery Ltd has added a new standard perfect binder to the factory floor, enhancing our already strong niche in the short-run edition and library binding market. The machine features high quality production perfect binding with fully automated operation and touch screen simplicity. From single edition POD book production to orders of several thousand, the perfect binder allows us to provide more binding methods and solutions for our customers. This machine can handle a wide variety of paper stocks and can even handle books as thin as 1 millimeter. 

 

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January 24, 2006

Mekatronics,Inc.
ULTRABIND PLUS™

On January 24, 2006, Jack Bendror and Ken Lines of Port Washington, NY, came to our plant in Utica, NE, to install a new ULTRABIND™ PLUS. This machine replaces Houchen Bindery’s original ULTRABIND™, which was installed in 1994. While we were fine-tuning the machine, we were also visited by Fritz James and Lang Wightman of LBS. They were on site to see and test some new materials that LBS has had in development for this machine.

 

L-R: Fritz James, Ken Lines, Jack Bendror, Lang Wightman

 

The original ULTRABIND™, developed in 1991, has throughout the years performed well, and, like other machines from Mekatronics, will no doubt continue to do so for many more years. But, like any machine, it can wear out, and electronics can become obsolete. To avoid the inevitable, Houchen Bindery Ltd. decided to upgrade while the timing was in their control, and so too would be the expense. The ULTRABIND™ has become the prime means of processing Double Fan Adhesive bindings for libraries and their binders.

 

All of the machine functions are now controlled by an IPC (Industrial PC). Will this new IPC be obsolete in time? Like many other products at the cutting edge of technology for which the life cycle is short, the answer is yes. However, when it does become obsolete, we are informed that with this latest state-of-the-art control device, migration of the software to the new replacement will be more straightforward than with its predecessors.

 

 

Over a decade ago, the development of the ULTRABIND™ established the size range of books to be processed by the machine, The recommendation at that time was that the thickness of an adhesive bound book block should not exceed 2” . Consequently, the machine was introduced in 1991 with a bulk size capacity of 2-1/4”. Over the ensuing years, the demand to process bulky books increased. The high cost of labor to process thick book blocks on separate machines brought about the redesign of the ULTRABIND™. The range has been increased from the old maximum of 2-1/4” to 3-1/4”. In addition, the machine is also able to process thin book blocks ¼” in bulk instead of the old 3/8”. These changes allow Houchen Bindery to process thicker materials; however, just because the customers demand it, and the machine can produce it, still does not make the original specifications wrong in any way. Thick book blocks with heavy paper will not stand the strain of the weight of the paper against the adhesive for as long as a thinner book block.

 

 

The size range is only one of the many changes in design that make the ULTRABIND™ PLUS a much more capable, productive and safe machine. We look forward to many years of good service from it.

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October 10, 2005

The president of Empire Bindery, John Estes, sold the assets of the company to Houchen Bindery Ltd. Located at 1400 Scott St , Wichita Falls TX , Empire had served many Texas and Oklahoma area customers. Houchen Bindery Ltd. obtained the binding records and will match the stamping work of Empire as closely as their newer computer-driven stamping machines will allow and begin serving the customer libraries with Houchen/Everett's vehicles. We look forward to meeting and serving you all.

 

 

Houchen Bindery Ltd. hosted our team members and a few of our customers to the football match-up between Iowa State and Nebraska. In a double overtime victory, Nebraska pulled off the heart-stopping win 27-20.

 

 

Our corporate tent area was visited by NU Athletic Director Steve Pederson before the game, where he shared his thoughts on the season with us. Great food, great game, great fun.

 

 

 

 

The annual celebration is also when the team members receive some extra incentives. Upon reaching their 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 year anniversary with the company, a US Savings bond is given corresponding with the years of service, $500, $1000, $1500, etc.