According to the North American company, the adhesive has been designed to counteract complaints received by publishers when books fall apart whilst being read on the beach, owing to the conditions.

Lunatack HL 3426 is a hotmelt spine gluing adhesive that provides heat resistance to perform well in hot weather as well as resisting abrasion from sand and salt.

Peter Yeboa-Kodie, area technical manager for graphic arts Europe at H.B Fuller said: "We pride ourselves in always striving to meet customer needs and providing solutions that really work.

"We are focused on the adhesive industry and it is always great to have a challenge that we can develop a new and exciting solution for, such as our high performance spine gluing adhesive for beach paperback books. We believe the HL 3426 will have a very positive impact on the bookbinding industry."

According to Yeboa-Kodie, the machine has passed a number of key examinations to ensure it can reach the quality the company claims it can.

He said that it passed the ‘subway’ test at 55°C when other hotmelt adhesives only pass at 45°C. This test involves opening a book at 360°, securing it open and storing it in a heat chamber for one hour.