Overview:
- The DFG EC-2000 is a heavy duty electric spiral coil binding machine that is designed for users that are looking for a high quality durable machine but don't need the fully disengageable dies offered by the E-TitanCoil.
- Manufactured by the Document Finishing Group, the EC2000 is offered at an excellent price point considering its features. In fact it is one of the least expensive heavy duty electric coil binding machines available on the market.
- This machine is specifically designed to meet the needs of organizations that need a heavy duty highly productive binding machine but don't need to bind documents that are longer or shorter than eleven inches.
Strengths / Features:
- After taking the EC2000 out of the box one of the first things that I noticed was how heavy and durable this machine is. From looking at pictures on the internet, I thought that the case on this machine might have been made of plastic. However, the body and case of this machine are actually made of heavy die cast metal components. The EC-2000 uses the same heavy duty case and design as the more expensive E-Titan Coil, it just doesn't have disengageable dies.
- In testing the punch on this machine I was able to punch up to twenty five sheets of 20lb paper. However, this was a fairly tight fit. I would probably recommend punching between twenty and twenty-two sheets of paper at a time. This is actually a very good punching capacity for a machine of this type and should offer excellent productivity for most medium and large sized organizations.
- The EC-2000 includes a pair of spiral coil crimping pliers in the box with the machine. These pliers are designed to cut and crimp the ends of your coil so that the spirals do not spin back off of your bound documents. It is great that this machine includes a pair since they cost about $30 if you have to buy them separately.
- In addition to the heavy duty electric punch, the EC2000 also includes a number of other great features. It has a document measuring device built into the right side of the machine and a depth of punch margin control on the left side of the machine. It also has a spiral coil inserter on the top of the machine and a foot pedal switch to activate either the punch or inserter.
Weaknesses / Limitations:
- The major limitation of the EC2000 and the reason why it costs considerably less than some other electric coil binding machines is the fact that it has no disengageable dies. This simply means that it is not possible to stop any of the individual pins from punching. This may not seem like it is a big deal. However, this fact makes it almost impossible to punch any size of document other than eleven inches using the binding machine. Truthfully, the machine can punch almost any length of document. However, without disengageable dies, your pages will end up with a half hole on the edge of your documents. This does not look professional and the holes are so close together that it is virtually impossible to avoid.
- The EC-2000 has a built in electric coil inserter. However, the inserter on this machine is more difficult to use than some of the other coil inserters that I have used. For starters, it only has one roller instead of two and the roller is only six inches long. Many other coil binding machines include dual rollers that extend the entire length of the machine. Using two longer rollers is easier for inserting coils than using one shorter one. Plus, the roller on the EC2000 is located on the top of the machine. This design forces you to lift the pages of your document up to the roller, adding time to the inserting process. The inserter still works fine, it is just more difficult to use than other coil inserters that I have evaluated.
- This machine uses a foot pedal to activate the punch and the coil inserter. However, the foot pedal is not nearly as heavy duty as the other components used on this machine. The foot pedal is the weakest link in this machine and considering that it will need to be stepped on hundreds and thousands of times this is somewhat concerning. This means that it may need to eventually be replaced.
- For organizations that only need to bind letter sized documents, the EC-2000 is an excellent choice. Although it cannot handle legal size, A4 or half letter sized sheets, this machine has all of the other features included in far more expensive binding machines.
- It has a heavy duty electric punch, a built in coil inserter, a depth of punch margin control and even comes with a pair of coil crimpers.
- All of these things make the EC2000 an excellent choice for medium and large sized organizations.
- There are certainly better machines available on the market. However, this machine provides an excellent value for your money provided that you can live with its limitations.
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