Dec.
 2004

CHASSIEU, France - Six months after Holding Delaroche opened its sprawling production plant anchored by two Goss Mainstream 4-by-1 offset presses, the publisher maintains it’s already reaping benefits.

“Everything is on schedule,” said Marien Bonieux, director general. “It was quite an achievement.”

Holding Delaroche built the plant to produce Le Progres, a 300,000-copy, 10-edition regional daily in Lyon, France, as well as two sister publications, Lyon Plus, a 20-page, 80,000-copy free tab and Lyon Capital, a 48-page, 15,000-copy weekly.

The Goss Mainstream in Le Progres’ production facility.
Photos: Newspapers & Technology

To produce the color and print capacity required, Holding Delaroche in July 2002 purchased three 80,000-copy-per-hour Mainstream presses. Two were installed in Chassieu; the third will be installed in a sister facility in Saint-Etienne.

The two Chassieu Mainstreams sport an identical configuration of eight webs, four towers, 34 printing couples and four formers. Each is equipped with a JF-2:5:5 jaw folder and eight Goss Contiweb FD pasters.

Digital inkers from Control Group Inc. complete the package.

The presses print up to 64 pages, including 24 of full color.

Exploiting technology

Now that the two Chassieu presses have been fully commissioned, Bonieux said Holding Delaroche is exploiting the machines’ technology.

Jean-Jacques Piolet, technology director, 
and Marien Bonieux, director general, Le Progres.

Of particular benefit: Reduced plate costs, thanks to the 4-by-1 configuration of the Mainstream. Instead of the two plates required by prevailing 4-by-2 technology, the Mainstream only requires a single plate around each cylinder to print.

“It would have been impossible for us to print Le Progres with the color and pagination requirements we have because the number of plates needed would be too high,” Bonieux said of the 4-by-2 configuration.

Crews now only need to produce 1,000 plates each night to produce the multiple editions of Le Progres, half of what would have been required with a 4-by-2 machine. Makeready, meanwhile, has also been trimmed, from 20 minutes to less than 10, enabling crews to end pressruns earlier. Changeover is accelerated by the semi-automatic plate lockup system.

“The ability to change plates in less time is key,” Bonieux said, adding that the Mainstream’s independently powered couples makes it possible for crews to change plates on one couple while others continue to operate.

“It’s reduced makeready and operating costs associated with manning the press.”

Saving newsprint

Bonieux also cited the press’ gapless blanket sleeve design, which lets Holding Delaroche save newsprint by eliminating the non-printable area associated with conventional blanket designs.

Le Progres’ mammoth production facility.
(click for high-resolution larger image)

“We are learning how to manage the blankets,” Bonieux said. “Sometimes the operator can change blankets a little too quickly.” Currently, Holding Delaroche is getting up to 12 million impressions from the sleeves, supplied by Day International Inc. The sleeves, in which the blankets are already installed, slide over the press’ blanket cylinders.

Other major press components include color registration from Quad-Tech, blanket washing and dampening from Baldwin Technology Co. Inc. and an in-line stitcher, for commercial work, from Tolerans.

In addition to the new presses, Holding Delaroche also migrated to computer-to-plate, installing three thermal imagesetters from Kodak Polychrome Graphics. The machines are managed through Protec’s workflow software.

“The entire process line has been changed, from an old building to an entirely new building with a new workflow,” Bonieux said.