Presses Answer Newspaper Demands For Efficiency

Increasing demand for immediacy and cost efficiency are having an impact on the design of more productive, more flexible, more automated and less labour-intensive production technology.

That is according to German press manufacturer KBA, which said that its answer to those needs is a new compact machine that embraces the automation of the company's Cortina waterless press and Commander CT wet offset press.

KBA added that in the newspaper sector, where capacity is normally equated with scale, the market demands are driving a gradual shift in philosophy towards the concept of 'small is beautiful'.

At the Ifra exhibition, one west German newspaper publisher announced that it had agreed on lower manning levels for the Cortina press, before placing an order.

The announcement reveals the reduction in operator workload that is possible with the Cortina's waterless technology, standardised processes and automation, said KBA.

That includes such time-consuming and strenuous activities as constantly adjusting ink keys and dampening units at the console, mounting and dismounting plates on several levels, which on conventional presses entails a lot of walking and climbing stairs, as well as such maintenance tasks as adjusting rollers, cleaning dampening nozzles and removing ink mist contamination at frequent intervals.

KBA commented that with newspaper publishing houses such as Le Figaro in Paris (France) have opted for the Cortina the effect is that those who adopt the technology are also promoting a more widespread acceptance of waterless techniques.

During August the first of three Cortina sections went live at Die Rheinpfalz in Oggersheim (Germany) and at the end of the year the second Cortina with a heatset capability will roll in to action at ELBO Avistryk in Denmark.

By then the installation of the biggest Cortina press line to date - with 12 towers - will be completed at Belgian media house De Persgroep's Eco Print Centre, which started coldset and heatset production last spring.

KBA has reported growing interest in Cortina presses with a heatset capability amongst printers in Europe and eslewhere.

One reason is claimed to be the option it offers of printing coldset and heatset copies with no change of ink.

Another is that the issues associated with double-width wet offset presses do not arise during hybrid coldset-heatset production, via a single common folder, on the Cortina.

In wet offset, the different impact of fount solution on dried LWC paper and undried newsprint leads to a higher volume of waste and lower productivity.

KBA explained that where there is no water there can be no fan-out, excessive web stretch or shrinkage and in that respect the company believes that the Cortina is unique among double-width and triple-width presses.

Before IfraExpo opened KBA and the Main-Post media group held an open house in Wurzburg to promote a wet offset counterpart to the Cortina, the Commander CT, which like the Cortina is four metres (13 feet) high and features the same Rollertronic automatic roller locks, Niptronic bearing system, Platetronic automatic plate changers, Stepin glide apart towers for maintenance and Ergotronic consoles that are said to be fully-compatible with other manufacturers' software systems.

Main-Post has ordered a second tower to create an eight-high configuration.

KBA said that what most impressed Main-Post were the fast edition changes, handling, colour registration and print quality.

The design is said to reduce fan-out by half compared to conventional wet offset presses and that makes it comparable with satellite presses.

According to Main-Post technical manager, Andreas Kunzemann, the Commander CT's new short-train film inking units with three forme rollers ensure effective solids reproduction and a larger tonal range with less dot gain.

Whether with or without ink keys and dampeners, KBA said it is confident that the compact design is the way of the future in newspaper production.

KBA's marketing director Klaus Schmidt's explained: "That is because newspapers' demands and press operators' job expectations are changing, and will continue to change." In previous years and elsewhere within the newspaper industry, KBA delivered the first big double-width press line with non-reversible nine-cylinder satellites for 4/4 production to Mediaprint in Vienna (Austria) and in 2003 the first 6/2 satellite press lines entered production in Switzerland.

KBA explained that 6/2 presses are not only capable of producing high-circulation, high-pagination products but they also have the flexibility to provide products with different page counts in almost any number of formats.

The company added that it has also proved that with a Commander 6/2 custom-configured press for Dansk Avistryk in Denmark.

That press, with four reelstands, four satellite towers, a single-width superstructure and two folders positioned at right-angles, can handle web widths from 500mm to 2,400mm (19.75" - 94.5") and a range of formats.

Software developed by EAE allows all production parameters to be stored for repeat runs, added KBA.

One current example of hybrid coldset-heatset production with conventional presses that KBA cited at Ifra is a dual Colora-Comet installation that came on stream a few months ago at West Australian Newspapers in Perth.

Dried webs from the single-width Comet press, which has two heatset dryers, can be mixed with coldset webs from the adjacent double-width Colora to form coldset newspapers with heatset covers or inner sections.

Poligrafici Editoriale in Bologna (Italy) will soon commission a double-width Colora press with four four-high towers that will run in tandem with a Commander T four-high tower press with heatset dryers.

KBA said that press manufacturers could no longer focus exclusively on developing their own technology.

In alliances with other companies they are increasingly seeking out new fields of application for the benefit of the newspaper industry.

One example is Zip'n'Buy, a zip-like perforation that can be inserted in newspaper advertisements, which was developed jointly by KBA, the Main-Post media group and retailer C and A.

Zip'n'Buy has won the German Printing Industry's Innovation Award for 2007.

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