GLASGOW, Scotland — A division of News International has gone on-edition with the first two of 19 MAN Roland Inc. ColorMAN XXL triplewide presses underpinning the publisher’s $1 billion printing improvement project.

The U.K. publisher, which prints The Sun, The (London) Times, the Sunday Times, News of the World and other titles, in 2004 outlined plans to build two new plants — one here and one outside of London — and employ new printing technologies to support its future needs. A third plant, in Liverpool, is also being refurbished (see Newspapers & Technology, November 2004).

The plan included an additional four MAN Roland ColorMAN XXL presses earmarked for Johnston Press to handle overflow printing under a 15-year agreement (see related story, page 12). Johnston Press commissioned two of its ColorMAN machines last year with the remaining two to go on-edition this summer.

Photo: Newspapers & Technology
The ColorMAN XXL’s harp of 15 allows 15 ribbons to
move into one former and then into one folder, simultaneously.
 

The Glasgow facility, now called newsprinters EuroCentral, is anchored by two 6-by-2 ColorMAN presses that went into operation in April, said Allan Wain, manufacturing director-North, for News International Newspapers Ltd.

The plant prints The Sun and the Sunday News of The World, with production of The Times slated for this summer. All told, the facility prints more than 460,000 papers each night, all of which must be delivered to 55,000 northern United Kingdom outlets by 4:30 the next morning.

That number that will grow further following a June agreement with The Telegraph to produce copies of that paper at the 85,000-square-foot site.

Deadline intensive

The plant’s entire infrastructure, from the presses and palletizers to the prepress and management systems, is aimed at meeting newsprinters EuroCentral’s deadline-intensive operating requirements, Wain said. Almost all of its papers are sold via retailers and it has a very limited time to turn the papers out.

“Much like a Formula 1 race, we have a restricted printing window that requires us to operate at maximum speeds to get the papers to the streets as fast as possible,” he said.

Photos: Newspapers & Technology
Muller Martini’s NewsTrim III, installed at Johnston Press’ Sheffield facility in Dinnington, is the vendor’s first installation of the high-speed trimmer in the United Kingdom.
 

Newsprinters EuroCentral reflects NI’s strategy to boost productivity and reduce costs by relying on a foundation that consists of a select number of vendors that can support a high-speed, full-color printing and postpress infrastructure cloaked with automation.

To that end, each of the plant’s two ColorMAN XXLs can print up to 86,000 copies per hour, with up to 144 pages in full color. Each 9-cylinder, six-former press has six printing towers, six reelstands and a first-generation 4:7:7 jaw folder for wide pagination. They’re engineered with an 87-inch web width and a 22.75-inch cutoff to let newsprinters EuroCentral produce a variety of tabs, Berliner and broadsheet formats.

Both the folders and presses are driven by Baumuller press drives and drive control systems. The presses are equipped with MAN Roland’s turbo-dampening system and a rotoclean auto blanket and satellite washing system, including a vacuum system. Another vacuum system is installed on the roller wash.

Simultaneous web-up

To handle the number of plates needed in the six-plate-across, two-around design, MAN Roland equipped the machines with its automatic power plate loading systems, which can handle up to 576 plates on each press.

Dieter Betzmeier, senior project manager for MAN Roland, inspecting the Baumuller servo drive for the 4:7:7 folder. The folder is equipped to handle as many as 12 webs.
 

Newsprinters EuroCentral’s ColorMAN XXL press.

Each of NE’s two presses is equipped with five Tolerans stitchers.

 

The plate-loader is linked to the machines’ Pecom press control, which enables automatic plate release.

Additionally, the machines are outfitted with simultaneous multiweb-up, capable of handling up to 12 webs.

Testing whether that many webs could be transported through the folder couldn’t occur until the press went on-edition, Wain said. “During testing it was not possible to run 12 live webs through,” he said. “But we are now running 120 broadsheet pages straight at press speeds of up to 75,000,” he said, adding that operators throttle down the presses a notch when producing 144-page runs. “It’s no problem,” he said. Wain said NI and MAN Roland are evaluating a larger nip section for the folder.

Newsprint is ferried to the press by MAN Roland’s Aurosys automated reel handling system, which includes two transfer vehicle systems.

The heavy-duty system controls everything from delivery to paper waste control, Wain said, and can support both barcode and RFID technology to enable automated tracking.

Five Tolerans stitchers are also included on each press.

 

Vendor support

MAN Roland’s printnet software, meantime, manages the manufacturing cycle for the Glasgow site and will also be installed in the other NI sites. The software also links with SAP modules for newsprint ordering and invoicing.

Wain said newsprinters EuroCentral is the first operation to use MAN Roland’s centralized database software, which also meshes with prepress and postpress systems from Agfa and Ferag, respectively.

Agfa installed three 220-plate-per-hour Polaris XCV-S violet computer-to-plate systems in Glasgow, in addition to its Arkitex workflow app and associated plate sortation systems.

The three are part of 20 CTP systems NI received from Agfa under terms of a 15-year outsourcing agreement under which Agfa is responsible for the maintenance, plate delivery and stock management of the systems, in exchange for a flat fee per imaged plate. Newsprinters EuroCentral expects to consume as many as 500,000 Agfa N91v plates each year.

It’s the same sort of contract NI negotiated with other vendors, including MAN Roland, ink provider Sun Chemical and postpress supplier Ferag, Wain said. The goal: to extend NI’s consumable supply chain to a select number of suppliers and in the process convey operating responsibility to the vendors themselves.

“The company philosophy is that vendors supply the equipment and between us we will develop the best partnership,” Wain said. “We have made the right choices with the right partners and have had the best startup I’ve ever experienced.”

The strategy not only shifts some operational and financial responsibility to suppliers, it will help NI cut staff by as much as two-thirds across the three plants as functions formerly performed by NI employees become the job of vendors.

Shared responsibility

To that end, MAN is not only overseeing the press, but also managing spare parts and press-related consumables as well as the BEK ink farm.

Sun is responsible for ink delivery and stock management, including ink quality reporting and technical support as well as waste-ink removal.

And Ferag manages postpress, which consists of high-speed stackers, gripper and copy conveyor lines and DAN mark IX palletizers capable of processing up to 70 bundles per minute. Newsprinters EuroCentral’s products contain no inserts.

One area still requiring some additional work: newsprint. Because mills wrap their newsprint differently, newsprinters EuroCentral hasn’t yet been able to craft a single approach governing roll prep and reducing white waste.

Still, Wain said newsprinters EuroCentral is on the right track to satisfy its demands. “We’ve developed an innovative strategy with our vendor partners to get the job done,” he said.

Following newsprinters EuroCentral in operation will be NI’s Liverpool plant, with five ColorMAN XXL presses, and a new production building outside of London, with 12 machines. They are expected to be in production by this fall and May 2008, respectively.