The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch recently replaced the lockups on its TKS presses with K&F’s Narrow Gap/No Tool locks.

“The old TKS locks had only a pin register for the head, and the trail was moving,” said Bill Kohl, director of operations for the Columbus Dispatch. “K&F’s new lock holds both the head and trail for better registration.”

Pressman Ray Gerren of the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, plates up a cylinder fitted with K&F International’s new Narrow Gap/No Tool Press Lock Up while Bill Kohl, director of operations, looks on. This is one of four TKS presses for which the Dispatch purchased new lockups to reduce its web-width to 50 inches and to improve its registration.
Photo courtesy of the Columbus Dispatch

The Columbus Dispatch (daily, 253,063; Sunday, 375,305) installed a total of eight lockups on its four two-around TKS presses, for all 1,280 page positions. The lockups were installed to improve registration and because The Dispatch is converting from 54.75-inch web width to a 50-inch web width. TKS began the web reduction in June, following the installation of the lockups. The Narrow Gap locks have pre-tapped holes on the cylinder bars so they can be adjusted for web reductions by sliding the lock down and re-bolting it.

“When I bought this lockup they were dual size,” Kohl said. “What they’re doing now is they’ve got three presses at 50-inches with the lockups and we’ll do a scratch test to move those in so they’re perfect.”

Conversion on the fourth press began August 5.

The Dispatch is totally computer-to-plate, with platesetters and optical benders from Western Lithotech, a Lastra Group Co. In addition to looking at K&F’s lockups, the newspaper considered Western’s toolless lockups.

“We installed one of their toolless lockups on the press and we ran the press and accelerated and decelerated and then we hit the stop button,” Kohl said. “At that particular point in time, Western did not have a clip to hold that plate on, so when we hit the stop button, the plates flew off. Since then, I understand they’ve corrected that. We installed K&F lockups the next week on one cylinder and did the same test and their’s stayed.”

Kohl said that had the Western lockups passed the press test, the newspaper would have seriously considered installing those lockups. However, he has been very pleased with the K&F lockups.

“The benefit of this lockup is that you have a top and bottom pin, and a head and trail pin that is set within three-thousandths, which gives me great registration because I use optical benders. That optical bender gives me an exact location on the plate,” he said. “They’re a spring lockup and you push the plate down. They’re toolless, so you come around to the trailing pin and push it into a spring-loaded device and then you can just suction the plates off. If the bender’s tolerance is exact, then the registration is exact.”

Kohl said the lockups have not hindered the production of the press or caused any slow downs.

“We’re running at speeds of 60-65,000 an hour and they stay on the press,” he said.

The Columbus Dispatch is the first newspaper site to install toolless lockups on a TKS press.