The
Morning Star Publishing Co. in Michigan has breathed new life into an old
inserter, permitting it to stuff ads into broadsheet newspapers or quarter-fold
shoppers with the flip of a switch.
Thanks
to technology developed by K&M Newspaper Services Inc., Morning Star is
using a 10-year-old Heidelberg NP630 inserter to handle both formats on the same
machine, said Bob Schiffman, director of operations for the publisher.
Morning
Star publishes the 16,000-circulation Morning Sun along with more than 24
weeklies and shoppers in Mt. Pleasant, Mich. Total circulation exceeds 360,000
copies each week.
“We
needed a machine that could do quarter-folds at high volume and also do our
daily newspaper in the same production window,” he said. “We couldn’t find
any machine that could do that while meeting our insert repair needs or
double-out requirements.”
Reconfigures
pockets
The
technology, called dual pocket format, retools inserters with a reconfigured
pocket that is capable of opening jackets of either format, said Mark Jacobs,
president of K&M.
“The
real key is this: If you have a shopper product to insert as a quarter-fold, you
usually had to use another (slower) inserter. Now you can use the same inserter
and (maintain production goals),” he said.
K&M
modified Heidelberg’s pockets at its Monroe, N.Y., plant and shipped them back
to Morning Star, where they were reinstalled on the 23:1 inserter. Each
re-engineered pocket has two opener mechanisms, one capable of handling
broadsheets, the other quarter-fold-sized products.
Launched
in August
Schiffman
began using the remanufactured Heidelberg in August, replacing a Muller Martini
machine. After fine-tuning the inserter to mesh with Morning Star’s new
stackers from Total Mailroom Support Inc., the reconfigured unit “is
performing well,” Schiffman said.
Morning
Star is currently running 12 of its 24 weeklies through the inserter, with the
rest moving to the machine over the next several months, Schiffman said.
For
now, the company is still doing some prepacking and final packing by hand, but
that step will be eliminated as automation increases.
“We
have a high volume” of inserts, Schiffman said. “Our ultimate goal is to
have 23 inserts run through the machine without any advance prepacking
necessary. This will occur as our operators become more proficient.”
K&M’s
Jacobs said the company will shortly unveil a marketing and advertising campaign
showcasing the modification. Jacobs said K&M can retrofit most inserters in
less than a week, performing the jacket modification either on-site or at its
New York plant. The reconfiguration costs about $900 per pocket.
