Wire sewing (saddle stitching) is the most common binding method for booklets, thin magazines, and notebooks. But as production volumes increase, the question is no longer "wire sewing or glue", but rather: single head or double head?
How a wire sewing machine works
This machine joins sheets of paper together using a wire through a stitching head (usually a Hohner head for stable and precise results), with two methods: saddle stitching (wire in the middle of the fold) and side stitching (wire on the side of the paper).
Single head vs double head
Single head sews one point at a time — suitable for low to medium volume printing, or booklets with a flexible number of sewing points per page.
Double head has two sewing heads with an adjustable distance (generally between 4-11cm), sewing two points at once in one movement. This significantly speeds up the process for high volume production such as large circulation magazines.
When to choose which
If your order is dominated by one or two copies of booklets with varying specifications, single head is sufficient and more economical. If you regularly print magazines or booklets with large circulations and uniform specifications, double heads will save production time significantly in the long term.
