Right. The owner's manual is full of information that we want our customers to see in order to ride correctly, safely and comfortably.
It's very convenient to be able to view it on your smartphone, but it's also nice to have a paper owner's manual that you can look at any time, even when the signal or batteries run out.
Right. Books are being digitised these days, but paper has its convenient aspects too.
Paper owners' manuals, unlike digital ones, involve printing, but do you know the binding process for owners' manuals? A surprisingly a lot of people don't know about the binding process of the book itself, and it's surprisingly interesting!
Wow - I don't know about the book binding process of the book itself and owner's manuals as well. Tell me about it on this occasion!
~ Printing ~
First, let me tell you about the paper used in the owner's manual. This is what the paper looks like before it's printed.
It's so big, isn't it?
We print this paper using machines like this one!
(Image is for illustration purposes. )
The ink on the machine plate is printed on paper via a blanket.
Wow, I didn't know that. So this is how it's printed!
This is what it looks like after printing.
Honda motorcycle owners' manuals are A6 size and there are multiple pages printed on this one sheet.
It depends on the printing machine and the model of owner's manual, but if you print for one minute, that's roughly the number of pages in 64 owner's manuals!
Wow, you can print a lot of pages in a minute!
It is also difficult to decide on the colours. For example, when you print a design on a computer, the colours may be slightly different from what you see on the computer. It depends on the type of paper and ink.
For example, this is the printed cover of the owner's manual, and we had to print it many times to get the colour right, to get this red colour exactly right!
It's hard work, isn't it?
~ Binding ~
After cutting, they will be arranged so that they're in page order.
If you fold a sheet of paper with several pages printed on one sheet, they line up in page order. In the case of motorcycle owners' manuals, they are bound in sets of two books, top and bottom, and cut in the middle at the end.
Car owners' manuals are A5 size, so they don't come in sets, top and bottom, and there's no final cutting process.
Actually I've folded an entire owner's manual by hand, it took me over half an hour and I almost got the page order wrong more than once.
That's right. Machines are amazing!
Do they make mistakes in the factory?
Nowadays, cameras have been installed, so it is basically impossible for the order of the pages to change, but in the past it was only a visual check, so there were inevitably times when the order of the pages would be different.
I see! So printing plants are evolving too!
~ Storage ~
They print in large quantities, so they need to store a large number of bound owners' manuals until shipment.
Quality control is very important in order to deliver the best to our customers. That's why they always adjust the temperature and humidity in the room. Depending on the storage area, we also take measures against insects and vermin.
They can't just print a lot and leave it there. It's a lot of work to store them too!
Did you learn a good lesson?
We talked about the paper owner's manual, but don't forget to look at the owner's manual, whether it's paper or digital!
Honda motorcycle owners' manuals are available on Motopub, so you can always check them on your smartphone!
Refer to the link below for more information.