NEW ORLEANS — Usually hitting the shows with low-key booths, Tensor Group Inc. decided to step it up a notch this year by displaying the new T-400B press.

The result was a booth that was considerably busier than others on the show floor.

The new web offset press, which is geared toward newspapers that are also interested in adding insert and commercial work to their production mix, is based upon Tensor’s 1400 series of single-width presses, but with added features to enhance the print quality for semi-commercial work.

Attendees check out the new T-400B press from Tensor. Photo by Chere’ Martin

“It was really designed for more of the commercial insert printers or newspapers that really want to focus on commercial printing,” said Don Gustafson, president of Tensor.

Among the features is a 100-percent helical drive design that helps eliminate distortion of dots.

Other features include rapid makeready; toolless plate change; bearers on both blanket cylinders and Tensor’s “bearing-in-bearing” design, both of which are used to help with support of the blanket and reduce print disturbances; reel rod-type, narrow-gap blanket lock-ups; and motorized registration.

The T-400B, which can be installed as a shafted or shaftless press, runs at a speed of 40,000 copies per hour and is available with cutoffs as low as 19 inches and as high as 24.8 inches, and has a web width ranging from 31 inches to 40 inches.

The units are available in two-, three- or four-high configurations and can be adapted to run in any press line, according to Tensor.

Plate and blanket cylinders on the new press are stainless steel clad with a tapered design for added stiffness. The blanket cylinders contain bearers for added stability.

The inking system consists of swing-down, cast-iron ink fountains with self-sealing ends. It also has an eight-roller train with two ink forms. The dampening system is designed to handle brush, spray or continuous dampeners.

“We really beefed up the drive shafts, bearings and lubrication. We’ve made a really solid 40,000 per hour machine,” Gustafson said.

Other features on the press include:

• Oil bath gear housing with self contained mechanical pump

• Centralized lubrication system

• Form roller throw-off shafts on outside of the rollers to eliminate ink buildup

• Pneumatic throw-off for impression, ink form, dampener form and ink-feed rollers

• Side running circumferential register on operating side

• Motorized sidelay and circumferential

Options available on the T-400B include:

• Water tracking system

• Segmented ink fountain blades

• Water and ink controls on the console

• Automatic remote inking system

• No-pack blanket cylinders

• Motorized full-page compensators

“We simplified the controls layout, not only on our previous machines, but we also looked at our competitor machines, and we tried to make things more orderly,” Gustafson said. “We moved controls away from the unit. We wanted to make the unit very clean, so we packaged everything inside, but yet also made it very accessible. You take a simple cover off, and you can get at everything you need to. When it’s all closed up, it doesn’t get all full of ink and mist that typically happens with a tower.”

Tensor inks deal with Flint

Tensor also announced that the company has entered into an agreement with Flint Ink Latin America that will make Flint the exclusive agent of Tensor in Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

Gustafson said that the extensive knowledge of the newspaper and commercial market of employees at Flint Ink Latin America made was key in reaching the agreement, which was finalized on the first day of Nexpo.

Tensor
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