PASSAU, Germany — Family owned Verlagsgruppe Passau GmbH (VGP) is one of this nation’s largest printers, operating 17 production sites throughout the country along with facilities in Austria, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

The company prints 130 daily editions with an average accumulated circulation of 3.8 million copies. VGP posted 2006 sales of more than $711 million and has more than 6,500 employees. To produce its annual volume of work, VGP relies on a press infrastructure consisting of 38 presses, a mix of single- and doublewide machines, from MAN Roland, Koenig & Bauer AG and Goss International Corp.

Last year, VGP diversified its presslines even further, commissioning three, nine-cylinder heatset-coldset hybrid presses from MAN Roland. The 4-by-2 ColorMAN machines, topped by a Megtec dryer and equipped with a saddle stitcher, sport variable web widths and are outfitted with MAN Roland’s power plate loading system.

Photos: Newspapers & Technology
The adjustable former on the MAN Roland ColorMAN heatset press, and inside the drying oven, at Verlagsgruppe Passau GmbH’s production plant.

The three-ribbon configuration enables both headset and coldset sectioning.

VGP is now in the process of installing four additional MAN Roland towers, all with coldset capabilities. The machines will join a KBA Commander 10-cylinder press already in operation in Passau.

On the prepress side, VGP uses two thermal computer-to-plate systems from Kodak in conjunction with printnet workflow software from MAN Roland. Ferag equipment anchors the mailroom.

Recently, Newspapers & Technology Publisher Mary L. Van Meter met with VGP Chief Technical Officer Kurt Übelher and VGP Director of Newspaper Process Technology Karlheinz Durr to review the lessons learned from deploying hybrid-printing technology.

Newspapers & Technology: Why did you install heatset instead of a UV system?

Übelher: We chose heatset technology because, when we were looking three or four years ago, UV technology on a doublewide press wasn’t a proven technology.

The UV inks were also much more expensive.

N&T: It’s been a year since you went on-edition with the heatset/coldset press in Passau. What’s your assessment of the hybrid production?

Übelher: A hybrid press prints coldset without problems. But when you bring in additional printing technologies, such as heatset, you are only going to get average to good heatset quality. Our hybrid press is not capable of printing the same types or jobs as a commercial printer.

Commercial printers produce high quality, brilliant colors — usually in A4 formats.

(Editor’s note: A4 is equivalent to an 8.5-inch by 11-inch piece of paper in the United States.)

The trim waste [for us] to reach an A4 format [from a newspaper page format] would be excessive.

As you know, we contract-print Österreich, the national daily of Austria (see Newspapers & Technology, January 2007). We consider Österreich a hybrid daily, which demands heatset-like quality. Our heatset capabilities allow us to look at more insert work. In addition, we mix heatset and coldset in our own newspaper products. This capability has given us the ability to attract additional advertisers.

A Q.I. Press Controls’ registration system installed on VGP’s hybrid press provides automatic control of color registration.

N&T: What have you learned in the last year about operating both a heatset and coldset press?

Durr: We had a very steep and difficult learning curve bringing heatset into our coldset operation. We wished we‘d had more press training in advance of the installation. It seems that there are experts in coldset printing and experts in heatset printing but not many experts in utilizing heatset in a coldset operation.

Specifically, we needed more speed in our heatset operation. We had to learn how to handle different paper in the heatset operation. For example, different properties of paper need different handling. Paper is not all handled the same way on a heatset press. We had to learn the differences in handling heatset paper, newsprint, supercalendared and lightweight coated stock.

Initially, we had a great many web breaks due to tension problems. Our web breaks were due to tensioning on start-up accelerating and run-down decelerating. These tensioning problems were all different than how paper runs through the coldset operation.

Additionally, ink density on the heatset press can vary greatly from the ink density on the coldset press. We had to learn that each (grade of) paper had a different density on the heatset press.

:Kurt Übelher, chief technical officer of Verlagsgruppe Passau GmbH.

 

N&T: How do you maintain the presses and what kind of cleaning and maintenance program are you using to keep the presses at top performance?

Durr: The heatset press needs cleaning more often than the coldset press, due to ink build-up. The blankets will get damaged if they are not cleaned properly. Our press cleaning operations change depending on the type of paper we are running. We noticed that if we pre-wash the blankets before every run we obtain a more stable run.

(Editor’s note: VGP uses technotrans’ Rotoclean system on its heatset press.)

Karlheinz Durr, VGP’s director of newspaper process technology.

N&T: How have you had to adjust the operation of the dryer?

Durr: We have to adjust the heat due to the kind of paper we are running on the job. With newsprint, the dryer has to be turned down to 194 F in order to reduce the shrinkage of newsprint. Higher quality papers need more heat to dry. The dryer does have variable heat settings but you have to learn what heat works best with what grade of paper. You really do need a full-time dedicated person to handle the heatset operation in order to accommodate all the variables.

N&T: What other technologies have to be employed specifically for the heatset operation?

Durr: We have a special infeed for our heatset operation. This helps manage web tensions on the various papers. We also have a QI Press Controls color control system on the heatset machine.

N&T: What about your inks?

Durr: We have special ink tanks for heatset versus coldset inks and they sit on opposite sides of the ink room. You don’t want to get them mixed up because (the inks) would be ruined. We could not use hybrid inks, as we needed better quality. As far as costs, the price is the same for process ink but the black heatset ink is slightly more expensive. We use the same technotrans dampening solution for both the heatset and coldset presses.

N&T: What about environmental issues?

Durr: We are very environmentally aware here in Europe. We use the Easylac cleaner system, which is a fountain filtration and recycling system, to clean the water and recycle our blanket washing. We operate a Megtec Dual-Dry TNV, which is an integrated hot air dryer and oxidizer system that helps us meet strict environmental regulations. It uses thermal recuperative technology, which converts solvents into harmless substances. Energy consumption is reduced through the use of purified hot air that’s returned to the dryer to heat up the web. And we turn off all the lights, too.

N&T: How do you market the capabilities of the heatset press as a contract printer?

Übelher: Heatset can bring you the “fun advertisers” like BMW and travel destinations. We have seen an increase in  our quantity of higher-end advertisers.

N&T: How do you process printed copies in the mailroom and for distribution?

Übelher: We have two lines of grippers coming off the heatset versus the coldset lines.  Our mailroom has three Ferag mailroom lines with dynamic buffering, with up to 10 inserts per line and a drum-trimming system. We have very few inserts compared to the U.S. market. The mailroom also has two card-gluing systems, inkjet addressing and polybagging.

N&T: Did you need different CTP units for the heatset versus the coldset work?

Durr: When we purchased the two Kodak thermal CTP lines we ordered one unit with a capacity of 1,200 dots per inch and a throughput of 220 plates per hour. The other unit was to be dedicated to the heatset operation. It had a higher dpi, 2,400, with a throughput of 160 plates per hour. We found that we really only needed the unit with the lesser dpi and higher speed.

If [we were] doing high quality A4 work on a higher grade of paper, than you would need a higher dpi in your CTP unit.

We use Nela for plate bending on both the MAN Roland and KBA presses.

N&T: What kind of actual production costs are you seeing between heatset and coldset production?

Übelher: We are finding that most of our costs — for plates, platemaking, makeready press and makeready mailroom — are nearly the same for heatset and coldset. Heatset is more costly for inks (due to coverage) production press and production mailroom, the latter primarily due to paper waste.