Mirror Colour Print in the United Kingdom has gone live with NewsWay from ProImage to drive the newly installed computer-to-plate workflow at each of its print sites. The largest national and regional newspaper group in the United Kingdom, Trinity Mirror plc, owns Mirror Colour Print.

Mirror’s sites in Watford and Oldham, England, are live on the system. The Cardonald site, near Glasgow, Scotland, will be the next to implement NewsWay and is scheduled to go live in December.

Each of MCP’s print sites is independently functional with its own presses and now with its own CTP lines. Watford prints its more than 120 publications per week on 12 ColorMAN 35 presses from MAN Roland. Oldham runs nine ColorMAN 35 presses and Cardonald prints on four KBA Commander presses.

“Pages are sent via networks from various publishing sites,” said Norman Walker, managing director for Mirror Colour Print. “Each site produces numerous publications.”

All of MCP’s print sites produce only newspapers, however, the Watford site also has stitch and trim capabilities for magazine work.

Mirror’s Watford and Oldham sites are already up and running with Krause LS Jet CTP units. Watford is running five Krause platesetters, Oldham is running three and Cardonald, which is scheduled to install its CTP units the third quarter of 2003, will eventually be running two Krause units.

Theoretically, Watford has the capability to output 210 plates per hour on each of its five units, totaling 1,050 plates per hour. Oldham can produce 210 pph on four units for a total of 840 pph and Cardonald will be able to output 420 pph on each of the Krause units installed there.

Running the NewsWay workflow will give MCP the ability to import publication plans using NewsWay Import Wizard or a manual Planning Wizard. Imported plans come from MCP’s own MIS system. Once the publication plan is imported into NewsWay, editions can be planned, sections can be added or deleted, color changes can be made and straight or collect modes can be selected.

Mirror Colour Print installed ProImage’s NewsWay to drive its computer-to-plate workflow from Krause.
Images courtesy of ProImage

If an operator chooses to use the NewsWay’s manual Planning Wizard, that person can set up a publication plan of his own that is not in the MIS system. Plans can also be amended, just as with Import Wizard.

After publication plans are determined, NewsWay’s Sortation Wizard can determine the number of presses required to print a particular job and pages can be sorted by title and edition. The number of plates required for a particular production run are also determined by Sortation Wizard.

Once MCP’s plan and sortation instructions are entered into the NewsWay system, files can be received from its raster image processors into the workflow. NewsWay’s Configuration Wizard lets MCP set up plate parameters. Files are directed to the correct output devices based on the number of presses needed for the job and the sortation mapping. By using sortation, MCP uses dedicated lines to output production.

NewsWay also adds a barcode to the bend of the plate. MCP’s plates are punched and bent on optical punch benders from Nela Ternes Register Group.

“Our Nela benders include panoramics,” Walker said.

The barcode on the plates are read by the Nela system before they go through the optical punch bender and the information ensures that plates are correctly placed for sortation. The barcode also instructs MCP’s inkjet printers to print information on the underside of the plate including job title, date, edition, section, press and CTP unit. The Nela OPB also sends NewsWay information about the plate — if it has been kicked out or if it has been placed in the sortation line.

NewsWay is also the “hub” for other equipment reporting in MCP’s production processes. MCP’s NewsWay servers and Krause Autoloader Control Terminal are networked and generate and exchange production status information between Mirror’s print sites.

System operators can use a Web browser to see when a plate is ready to go to press and MCP’s production staff can monitor the entire transmission and plate production system through the browser. The NewsWay communication center reports any failed plates.

MCP can generate live information from NewsWay about plates to the MIS system for production reports at the end of a press run.

Trinity Mirror has two divisions — nationals and regionals. Mirror Colour Print prints the nationals and some of the regionals. Trinity Mirror prints regionals only at its Midlands facilities near Birmingham and Coventry, England (see related article, Newspapers & Technology, June 2002). Trinity Mirror expects those sites to become NewsWay users as well. Trinity Mirror is also using NewsWay at other locations, including its Canary Wharf facility.