By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor

The staff at the Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., was prepared for two Kansa Twisters to land in its packaging and distribution department last month.

The installation of new multi-feeder machines came one month prior to Jan. 10, the newspaper’s 200th anniversary.

The Post and Courier purchased two Kansa Twisters with four feeders along with the Kansa.net and Prism control system.
Photo courtesy of Post and Courier

Gary Holley, packaging and distribution manager at the Post and Courier, said that the newspaper conducted an extensive search of new inserting equipment before selecting the Twister.

The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle was the test site for the Twister. Kansa introduced the Twister at last year’s Nexpo conference.

“Our machine operators were calling newspapers all over the country trying to find better running solutions when we heard of the Wichita [test],” he said. “Our operations director, Gene Walls, went to Nexpo to get first-hand information.”

The 15,000-cycle-per-hour Twister multi-feeder was developed to run in conjunction with circular type inserters. Lightweight and odd-shaped inserts are gathered on top of each other and inserted all at one time. Users can expand the feeder from two units to eight from a master unit. Each add-on unit contains two feeders.

The Post and Courier (daily, 101,288; Sunday, 113,999) purchased two Kansa Twisters with four feeders along with the Kansa.net and Prism control system, Holley said. The units will be attached to Heidelberg 1472 and 2299 inserters. Installation began Dec. 7, and the newspaper was inserting with the first Twister on Dec. 12. The Post and Courier had both Twisters up and running mechanically by Dec. 13; training was conducted through December, Holley said.

The Prism system will be installed and operational later this month.

The Twister can insert products ranging from 4-by-6 inches to 12-by-14 inches. The multi-feeder is connected radially to the circular inserting machine without moving or changing the existing operation setup.

Postpress departments can add pockets to existing circular inserters without relocating the current equipment. The multi-feeder can run light, odd-shaped and glossy inserts.

Holley said a major reason why the Post and Courier selected the Twister was the newspaper’s growth of specific single-sheet inserts.

He said the Twister will help the newspaper increase its capacity for the growing insert market. Holley also said that the newspaper did a study of its insert sizes and discovered that 85 percent of the inserts ranged from a single sheet to 10 pages.