SAN LUIS OBISPO -- ExactBind West Inc. has donated to Cal Poly's Graphic Communication Department an on-demand bookbinding system for binding high-quality presentations and short-run books. The Fastbind Elite system, valued at over $14,000, can perform up to 180 cycles per hour with no setups or glue-pot cleaning. The system provides dust-free spine roughening and applies hard covers, soft covers and tape binding for up to 900 pages. “The Graphic Communication Department has been building laboratories to teach students about the processes and applications of short-run digital printing, a major trend in the printing and publishing industry,” said Department Head Harvey Levenson. “This new binding system fits right into such a workflow. The ExactBind allows students to produce book projects with real hardbound covers -- the same covers as the highest quality books available today. It can be used for binding as few as one book or as many as needed.” ExactBind West President Tom Carpenter said, “We are committed to the premise that digital books on demand is the present and future of most books that will be produced worldwide. Digital printing, the explosion of color versus monochrome printing, and the Fastbind book binding system are now the optimum solution for markets that have previously been unable to create this quality of product. “It is now possible for authors to create the content, sell the books, and then order them for delivery well within the committed delivery date.” The ExactBind system will be used in the book design technology course taught by Professor Lorraine Donegan. “The short-run, on-demand book market is a fast growing segment of our industry. This donation will allow our students to see firsthand how the on-demand printers can produce high-quality hardcover books for both small and large orders.”