Unitized Board Vs. Flexhinge Technology

Corporate Image binders are built to last, thanks to our flexhinge construction!

Most binders on the market are created using unitized board—if you happen to have a vinyl binder lying around, take a closer look at the construction to understand what that means. You might notice that your binder is made from three separate pieces of board that act as the front cover, back cover, and spine. The board pieces are held together by a cover material, in case of a vinyl binder this would be, you guessed it, vinyl. The hinges of this binder are actually the thinnest and weakest area, even though they experience the most stress when a binder is being used. That is why so many 3-ring binders fail at the hinges. Even binders with a cloth or paper wrapping could have these flimsy qualities if they are made using the unitized board method.

That’s why we say NO to unitized board binders at Corporate Image. Our binders are made using our flexhinge technology that outperforms the competition by leaps and bounds. We use a single piece of rigid cover board made from >99% post-consumer waste. In our production process, the board is mechanically compressed to form the hinges. The compression does not eliminate any of the board, keeping the same material strength where other binders show their weak spot.

Figure 1: Most retail and competitor binders have weak hinges, as a thin cover material is all that holds the binder together. If you look above, you’ll notice how the binder hinges bend unnaturally.

Notice the hinges here—the cover cloth is the only thing keeping this binder together. With the stress of each open, the cloth will begin to fray and separate from the board.

So for comparison, let’s explore how this binder looks when it is produced by Corporate Image.

Figure 2: Here you can see how the board is compressed to create each hinge. At each open and close, the stress is now put on the rigid cover board instead of only the cover material.

A Better, More Beautiful Binder

We always recommend using better, stronger, more beautiful binders to represent your brand because a binder’s durability is easy to see and feel. Furthermore, we offer a wide variety of cover materials like cloth, specialty papers, or print, giving brands the opportunity to fully express themselves through their presentation materials.

The fact that our binders last over 250,000 openings without showing any signs of wear is great for the environment as well, since you won’t need to replace materials and can reuse them for a different project.

Contact us to get started on your next flexhinge project, whether it’s a binder or sample display!