The Weekend Warrior: June 25 - 27
ComingSoon.net's The Weekend Warrior offers a preview of the new releases opening the week of Friday, May 25, including the Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz action-comedy Knight and Day (20th Century Fox), opening on Wednesday, and the new Adam Sandler-Kevin James-Chris Rock ensemble comedy Grown Ups (Sony) on Friday. This week's "The Chosen One" is the Afghanistan war doc Restrepo (National Geographic ...

Akiles CBM650 Modular Plastic Comb Opener Review

Overview:

• The Akiles CBM650 modular comb opener was is designed to allow users with a modular binding punch to quickly and easily insert their punched pages onto plastic comb binding spines.
• Designed by Akiles to work with the Versamac modular binding punch, this comb opener can be used with virtually any modular punching system and can even be used to increase productivity with smaller manual and electric comb binding systems.
• The CBM650 is similar to other modular comb openers by GBC, Rhin-O-Tuff, Tamerica and Renz. However it includes several features that are not commonly found on other comb openers.

Strengths / Features:

• The Akiles CBM 650 is the only plastic comb opener available on the market with a detachable handle that can be installed on either the left or right side of the machine. This makes this unit an ideal choice for left handed users and for organizations with multiple users.
• This modular comb opener is designed for use with plastic combs up to 24 rings in length. This means that it can be used to bind books that are legal size (14 inches), letter size (11 inches), A4 size (11.7 inches) and smaller half size documents.
• The CBM-650 is made of heavy duty metal for lasting operation. It is mounted to a high quality stand that offers a comb sizing guide. The metal teeth on this machine are heavy duty and are long enough for use with both small round shaped plastic combs and larger oval shaped combs.
• The comb opening mechanism on the CBM650 seems to be both heavy duty and designed well. It is important when looking for a plastic comb opener that the comb stays open and does not slip when you are inserting your pages. On some comb openers this can be a problem when binding documents with larger combs. This machine did not slip when binding documents with either small or large sized combs.
• The price point on this machine is excellent. In fact, it is one of the most affordable comb opening machines available on the market.

Weaknesses / Limitations:

• One of the few potential weaknesses of this machine is that the handle used to open the combs is relatively small and is tilted back when the opener is in the closed position. This small handle can take a little bit getting used to but after a while it seemed relatively easy to use.
• The CBM650 has long open slots on the top of the machine. Over time it is possible for paper dust, and chads to build fall into these slots and to build up on the mechanism inside the machine. It is a good idea to take the machine and periodically blow it out with an air compressor. However, over time it still may be necessary to take the machine apart to clean it especially in production environments.
• The Akiles CBM650 will easily sit on a table, counter or on the top of your machine. However, many other comb openers have a larger footprint than this model providing more stability during the comb opening process. It didn't seem tipsy during testing. However, it was not as stable or heavy as other comb openers that we have tested. This may be a weakness for some users and a potential strength for other users.

Recommendation:

• The excellent price point and the ambidextrous design of the Akiles CBM650 make it a definite winner.
• This machine is an excellent choice for use with a modular binding punch such as the GBC Magnapunch, Akiles Versamac or any of the Rhin-O-Tuff binding punches that are available on the market.
• It can even be used along with smaller desktop comb binding systems to increase productivity by forming an assembly line with one user punching and another inserting pages onto the binding combs.

About the Author

If you need more information or would like to purchase the Akiles CBM650 Modular Plastic Comb Opener or any of the other Plastic Comb Binding Machines that we carry please feel to visit our site or contact us with your questions.

This review was written by Jeff McRitchie who is the director of marketing for Mybinding.com. Jeff has written more than three hundred articles and more than two hundred reviews on Binding Machines, Binding Supplies, Report Covers, 3-Ring Binders, Index Tabs, Laminators, Laminating Supplies, Paper Shredders and Paper Handling Equipment.