Tamerica / Tashin 240HB 14" Modular Comb Opener

Staff Review

Tamerica Tashin 240HB Manual Modular Plastic Comb Opener Review

Overview:

• The Tamerica 240HB is a manually operated modular plastic comb opener that is designed for printers, in plant print shops, binderies and high volume users of plastic comb binding.
• The 240HB is an ideal companion for a heavy duty modular plastic comb binding punch. It is small enough that it can be stacked on top of many punches or it can be placed beside your punch to allow one user to punch while another user finishes the documents.
• The 240HB is designed to help organizations increase productivity while binding documents with plastic combs. You can use it with a heavy duty modular electric punch, with 19 hole punched paper or to edit your existing comb bound documents.

Features/ Strengths:

• This machine is designed for use with all of the different sizes of plastic comb binding spines. The 240HB can open comb binding spines that are round or oval shaped. It can be used with spines as small as 3/16" and as large as two inches in diameter. You can use it to bind documents with as few as two sheets or with as many as 425 sheets of 20lb bond paper.
• The 240HB is fourteen inches in length. This means that it can be used to open combs for binding letter size, legal size, half size, A4 and other custom sizes of documents.
• The small footprint of this machine makes it ideal for placement on top of your modular binding punch. It can easily be placed on the counter beside your punch or can be stored away when it is not in use.
• This comb opener has a convenient adjustable binding stop on the side of the machine. The adjustable binding stop allows users to set the machine to open a specific size of comb. This is extremely useful for binding a large number of documents that are all the same size.
• The 240HB has heavy duty metal components that are designed to hold up in production environments. It is great for high volume applications where it needs to be used on a daily basis.

Limitations/Weaknesses:

• On the 240HB model that I tested, the comb opening handle began to slip slightly over time. The handle is supposed to stay tight and remain open without the need to hold it in place. I was able to tighten the handle to fix this problem. If the machine has this problem in the field it is possible that you may also need to tighten the handle.
• This machine is only fourteen inches in length. It is great for opening legal size and smaller documents. However, users who need to open longer sized combs will find that the handle on the left side of the machine gets in the way. Users who need to insert combs that are longer than 24 loops will need to insert the last loops by hand or try to work around the handle on the side of the machine.
• Although the 240HB is a good solution for high volume users, the highest volume users may benefit from an electric plastic comb opener such as the GBC PB2600. An electric plastic comb opener is both easier to use and offers more productivity than a manual opener. It also doesn't have a handle to get in the way for binding long documents.

Recommendation:

• The 240HB is a great choice for printers, binderies, large organizations and in plant print shops that are looking for a high quality modular comb opener.
• It is capable of handling both large and small plastic combs with up to 24 loops. This makes it great for binding letter size, legal size, half letter and custom length documents.
• The only weakness with this machine is that the handle can become loose over time and that it isn't ideal for binding documents that are longer than twenty four loops.