The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee last month finished a color upgrade built around Model 80 towers from Printing Press Services International.

The Bee (daily, 293,189; Sunday, 300,993) added six PPSI towers, said Bruce Meissner, production director.

“They are running very well,” he said.

A PPSI tower at The Sacramento Bee. The newspaper doubled its color capacity with the addition of six PPSI towers.
Photo: PPSI

PPSI installed two, three-high towers on each of The Bee’s three Goss Metroliner presses in the first phase of the multiyear project, which will also see the paper add PPSI digital inkers and upgraded controls from Q.I. Press Controls.

A seventh Model 80 tower, to be added to The Bee’s Colorliner press, will be installed next year, Meissner said.

The Metroliner upgrade doubled the color capacity of The Bee, from 16 to 32 pages.

To accommodate the Model 80 units, The Bee removed a half-deck and common impression cylinder on each of its Metroliner machines.

It then converted the remaining Metroliner unit in the “A” position to shaftless technology, in the process stitching the mono Metro unit to the PPSI tower.

“From an engineering standpoint, it’s a smart design,” Meissner said. “It’s working very well.”

Elsewhere, The Herald in Everett, Wash., also expects to go on-edition this month with a PPSI Model 80 tower and 50-inch reelstand, which it added to its existing Goss Metrocolor pressline.