The source of poor folds is rarely poor paper quality. Poor folds are usually the result of poor planning. The rules for a good clean fold are simple, but time and again, folks try to cut corners and go against the grain.
All machine-made paper has a grain direction. While on the paper machine, most paper fibers will line up in the direction the paper is traveling along the machine. You have to understand, Grain Direction…the Long and Short of It , to properly plan your jobs and to subsequently properly fold paper.
Planning ahead and buying the proper sheet size to get the most efficient number of pieces from a sheet, while taking grain direction and parallel fold direction into account, will save you many headaches, botched jobs and, yes, money!
You will not save money by buying a sheet size strictly to get the most pieces out and disregarding the grain direction and folds. Trashed or rejected jobs are very expensive. Now that you know about grain direction and the need for proper planning, you are ready to approach the fold with confidence.
Folding is best executed with a score line pressed into the sheet, which creates a hinge for a nice clean fold. As I said, for a nice clean fold, your success hinges upon creating a proper score line hinge. Much like a door requires a proper hinge to swing freely, creating a hinge in your paper allows the paper fibers to move freely without cracking and bending in unsightly directions.
The delamination relieves the internal pressures of folding and thus eliminates the fiber cracking that would normally occur. You can read more detail about creasing paper versus scoring paper here in a previous Bindery Success Blog article.
Scenario 2 - Folding where fiber cracking is not an issue. Typically this is brochure and signature work, consisting of multi-panel right angle work. In these cases you are trying to make two or more sheets of paper fold consistently where you want it to.
This is done by scoring , which we define as any technique that weakens the paper along the fold line to assist in folding. It includes all types of rotary mechanical devices as well as wet-scoring, in which a needle applies a thin line of liquid along the fold line. Mechanical scoring tools will normally have the male running on the inside of the folded piece for jobs like this. Fiber cracking is usually not an issue for this type of work.
The bigger issue is getting the brochure to fold consistently and accurately. This is accomplished by fine tuning the score for the stock and sequence of folds.
Note : Creasing Tools can be used for both creasing and scoring. Many scoring tools, however, such as those without female channels, are not capable of producing a true crease. One popular example drawing is the steel score blade pushing the sheet between two steel collars or against a rubber counterpart.
The paper will not de-laminate internally and thus will probably not eliminate a fiber cracking problem. For those of you whom already own Technifold Tri-Creasers , be sure to ask about our Nylon Creasing Ribs which are made of a harder material than our traditional style creasing ribs and our great for laminated sheets, brouchure and signature work. Scenario 3 - The Exceptions.
Naturally the real world likes to mix things up a bit, especially if we think we have something figured out. Conventional creasing wisdom dictates that creasing only works on a single sheet of paper, with the male hitting the outside of the fold. We're referring to the type of signature with one or two folds in the main parallel section, a score on the spine and the final fold in the right angle.
But the end result is that fiber cracking can indeed disappear on the spine of the signature. Having said that, we still urge you to experiment with the male on both sides of the sheet. You may find that the conventional score with the male on the inside will work just fine.
Then crease the cover sheet as described above male into the outside and score the 8 pager.
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