Use this article when your shop bind books with a metal coil — calendars, notebooks, presentation decks — and you need Estimator to price the wire and the bind step on every wire-o quote. After this you will have a wire-o binder that prices correctly on quotes for wire-bound products, with the wire cost and bind labor appearing on the price breakdown.
Steps
1. Configure the wire-o binder
Open Estimate Setup → Binding Machines → Wire-O, then add or open the binder you want to configure. Fill in the fields below.
Identification
Name — recommended format is brand and model, so the machine is easy to recognise on quotes (e.g., "Wire-O 1").
Tags — link this binder to upstream presses and substrate groups it can run after. Estimator uses tags to pair the binder with compatible work.
Books this binder accepts
Sheet sizes — the press sheet sizes the punched leaves can arrive on. Select from the drop-down (e.g., SRA1, B1). The options come from your configured substrates.
Book width (min/max) and book height (min/max) — finished book dimensions in millimetres or inches (e.g., 105–300 mm, or 4–12 in).
Book thickness (min/max) — bound thickness range in millimetres or inches (e.g., 1–40 mm, or 0.04–1.6 in). This typically maps to the largest wire diameter the punch and closer can handle.
Binding edge (min/max) — the punched edge length in millimetres or inches (e.g., 148–420 mm, or 6–16 in).
Speed
Output per hour — books bound per hour (e.g., 130 books/hour for a tabletop closer, higher for an inline). The output type is fixed at books for wire-o binders.
Books per hour adjustment — slow the line down on jobs with thicker spines or larger formats. Add range rules — for example, 1–10 mm spine → 130 books/hour, 11–30 mm → 80 books/hour.
Stations — the number of feeder stations on the line (e.g., 13).
Wire consumable — particular for wire-o
Wire pitch — the hole spacing of the wire system you stock (e.g., 3:1 or 2:1, expressed in mm pitch). Set this to the pitch your punch tooling is currently set up for.
Wire cost per length — the consumable wire cost per millimetre or inch of bind edge (e.g., €0.002 per mm, or €0.05 per inch). Estimator multiplies this by the book's bind edge length and quantity.
Wire price per thousand — wholesale wire cost per 1000 lengths if your supplier prices that way. Use either this OR Wire cost per length — not both — to avoid double-charging.
Multi-pass
Multi-pass setup minutes — extra make-ready time when the signature count exceeds Stations and the job must run in two passes (e.g., 15 minutes).
Multi-pass speed reduction — fraction Output per hour drops by on the additional pass (e.g., 0.5 = half speed).
Labor assistant
Labor assistant required — number of helpers needed alongside the operator at different job sizes. Add range rules — for example, 1–5 signatures → 1 assistant, 6–10 → 2, 11+ → 4.
Cost
Machine rate per hour — hourly running cost covering amortisation, electricity, and tooling wear (e.g., €30/hour for a tabletop closer).
Labor rate per hour — operator cost per hour (e.g., €20/hour). If the operator can do other work while the line runs, enter a fraction of their full rate (e.g., 50%).
Make-ready labor cost — fixed labor cost added once per wire-o section (e.g., €0.07).
Minimum charge — floor amount. If the calculated wire-o cost is below this, Estimator applies the minimum instead.
Make-ready and spoilage
Running spoils % — extra books spoiled as a percentage of the run quantity (e.g., 0–2%). Punch-misalignment failures usually drive this number; tune it to your operator's experience.
Over copies — extra books produced on top of the ordered quantity (e.g., 100 for high-volume, 2 for short-run).
Open the card view on the machine row to set additional details:
Volume markup tiers — tier the markup by quantity.
Run speeds — override Output per hour for specific paper weights, coatings, or job conditions.
Save the change. The Pending Changes count increments by one in the sidebar.
2. Connect the wire-o binder to the product category
Open Wire-O Categories under Binding Machines and add the product categories that may use this binder (e.g., Wire-O Bound Book). On the part row of the bound part, open Production Steps and add the wire-o operation so Estimator includes it on every quote that selects this category.
Save the change. Pending Changes increments again.
3. Apply the changes
Open the Pending Changes panel in the sidebar and review the staged edits to the wire-o binder and the product category. Select Apply Changes to publish them to live setup.
The Pending Changes count returns to zero and the wire-o binder is now part of the active configuration.
Things to know
The pitch, cost-per-length, and price-per-thousand fields under Wire consumable are specific for wire-o binding. Saddle stitch, perfect bind, case making, and pad glue do not have a per-length consumable — leave these blank on other binders.
If a quote shows a wire cost that is double what you expect, you have probably set both Wire cost per length and Wire price per thousand. Pick the one your supplier invoices on and clear the other.
Wire diameter often dictates Book thickness (max) more tightly than the closer machine does. If your stock wire is 25 mm max diameter, set the max book thickness accordingly so Estimator does not route oversize jobs to this binder.