After announcing a long-term agreement to print La Presse, a French-language daily newspaper in Montreal, Transcontinental Group has ordered two gapless Heidelberg Mainstream presses.

Heidelberg Web Systems will begin installing the presses in October at a new print facility to be built in Montreal. Transcontinental will use the new Mainstreams with a total of 68 printing couples when it takes over printing La Presse (daily, 183,000; Saturday, 274,000; Sunday, 191,000) and its related publications by September 2003.

A 3-D configuration drawing of the two Transcontinental Mainstream presses. Installation is scheduled to begin in October.
Photo courtesy of Heidelberg

“With gapless blankets, a 1-by-4 format and other innovative features, Mainstream presses will enhance our plans to create a specialized, state-of-the-art facility where we can achieve the highest levels of print quality, productivity and efficiency,” said Rémi Marcoux, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Transcontinental Group.

The duplicated Mainstream presses at the new Montreal facility will include a total of six four-high towers and two five-high towers. They will print up to 80,000 copies per hour in straight production. Heidelberg will supply 12 Contiweb FD pasters with automated loading and reel preparation capabilities, an RBS-32 rotary blade folder and two JF-255 folders. One of the JF-255 folders will be equipped with quarter-folding capabilities. Heidelberg Omnicon control systems will include the Omnipage automatic page recognition feature and a digital prepress interface package.

“Transcontinental has always been a progressive leader in utilizing advanced commercial and newspaper printing technology,” said Heidelberg Senior Vice President Mark Levin. “Their selection of the Mainstream is a strong endorsement for the print quality, productivity and plate-saving advantages our technology can provide.”

Heidelberg introduced the Mainstream in 2000. The dynamic stability provided by the gapless blankets allows the press to deliver premium print quality at up to 80,000 cph with a 1-by-4 plate cylinder and a 1:1 plate-to-blanket cylinder ratio. The 1-by-4 configuration requires 50 percent fewer plates than a traditional two-around, double-width press. It also allows the layout versatility of two-page jumps and sections with unequal page counts.

Transcontinental currently operates a network of five plants throughout Canada that are dedicated to printing local, regional and national newspapers on a contract basis. The company has printed the Ontario edition of The Globe and Mail on Heidelberg Mercury presses at its Interweb facility near Toronto since 1994.