Newspaper & Magazines

markets. It’s a very exciting venture.”
Colin Marlow is sales director at WRH Marketing
UK. “I think Mortons Print Ltd. is a
good example of how a newspaper printer
can move into the semi-commercial sector
by investing in post press facilities,” he
says. “It really depends upon the type of
contract work the printer hopes to win. We
are experiencing interest from newspapers
looking to add value via this route, whether
this is stitching sections or adding memo
notes. With contract work often sent direct
to the customer, rather than a newsagent,
we have also seen a rise in sales of equipment
that enables a better presentation of
bundles.”
Mortons Print Ltd. uses its coldset Uniset
virtually entirely for contract printing, producing
more than 200 newspapers and lifestyle
publications for customers throughout
the UK. The company also publishes
around 20 titles, many of them for niche
markets.
Process automation
The manroland Uniset is equipped
with Baldwin’s automatic brush cleaning
technology and Baldwin has
been working closely in recent years with
printers and newspaper publishers moving
into the semi-commercial market.
With a comprehensive global network and
a unique range of process automation systems
for web offset presses, Baldwin is in
an ideal position to see trends in the market
around the world. The group’s Centre of
Competence for newspaper press ancillary
The manroland Uniset press in use at Mortons of Horncastle
Horncastle.
and controls is Baldwin Jimek in Sweden.
“Some newspaper presses have needed a
significant amount of investment to enable
them to print semi-commercial jobs cost
effectively, and have required the installation
of a range of equipment such as automatic
blanket cleaning, spray dampening,
gluing, web cleaners and web catchers,”
says Peter Hultberg, managing director at
Baldwin Jimek.
“Many publishers have had to invest in
completely new press capacity but even
new presses need to be fitted with process
automation systems. There is no one system
that suits every situation. For example,
depending upon the printer, press and
type of work, the most suitable automatic
blanket cleaning technology may be either
a brush or a cloth system. Baldwin offers
the latter with a choice of cloth that is impregnated
with a cleaning agent or a dry material
with a separate liquid applied at the
point of cleaning.
“The development of entry-level automatic
blanket cleaning technologies that also
provide excellent results has opened this
option to a wider audience. Systems that
remove dirt and debris from the web prior
to it entering the first printing unit are becoming
increasingly popular, particularly
as handling semi-commercial work involves
a greater stock range. Some printers
with web cleaning facilities are able to print
millions of impressions without stopping to
clean blankets. The benefits are even greater
when web and blanket cleaning systems
operate on the same press to maximize the
amount of printed copies without any dete-
Baldwin‘s Constant C technology ensures
that the nozzles on its spray dampening
systems remain unblocked.
rioration of quality and at the same time to
minimize the turnaround time between two
jobs.”
Spray dampening facilities might already
be fitted to an existing press, but they may
have to be updated to handle the varying
web widths encountered with semi commercial
work. Some spray dampening systems
have a very simple but effective shutter
device that allows the width of spray
being applied to the plate to be altered manually
or automatically.
“All spray dampening systems are bombarded
during the run by dirt, ink and paper
fibres, which inevitably leads to blocked
nozzles, poor print quality and lost production,”
says Peter Hultberg. “It has been an
inherent industry problem with all such
systems. However, Baldwin has overcome
the issue of blocked nozzles with its ‘Constant
C’ technology, which is supplied as
standard on LithoSpray Maxima and can be
supplied as an option or retrofitted to Litho-
Spray World and Optima spray dampening
equipment.”
Baldwin has also seen a rise in interest for
web w catching systems from newspaper
printers p equipping their presses with dry-
ing
capabilities. The potential downtime
caused c by damage to press components
because b of web breaks has become too
great g a burden to risk for many publishers,
whether w they are operating in the newspaper
p or semi-commercial sectors. There are
other o issues to consider. Not many newspapers
p require in-line gluing facilities, but
they
may need to invest in this technology
when w handling semi-commercial orders.
Upgrade U or new?
Even those publishers remaining
firmly in the newspaper arena are
investing in the types of systems that
enable e them to obtain higher productivity
from
their presses, with greater cost efficiency
c and less impact on the environment
- another issue that needs to be addressed
when w considering new technology and new
markets. m
“Unless “ you’re going to buy a new press, the
options o for a traditional newspaper printer
1/2008 N&M NEWSPAPER&MAGAZINES 55