Basler Zeitung Makes Significant Savings With Equipment From Baldwin
2/14/2006
(14/02/2006)
Swiss newspaper printer Basler Zeitung has achieved significant reductions in wastage, while increasing productivity and print quality from its new KBA Commander by equipping the eight-tower satellite press with a range of cleaning and dampening equipment from Baldwin Technologies. Basler Zeitung is the leading newspaper in Basel, with a daily circulation of around 110,000 copies. In addition to its own newspaper, the company prints work for a wide selection of external customers, including Coop, a direct mail house that produces an edition of 1.4 million copies each week.
“It was the possibility to compete for large assignments that was the most important reason for deciding to invest in a new printing press,” says technical director Felix Bitterli. “With so many printers in so small a country the competition is really tough, and you have to be able to offer the best combination of quality, assured delivery and price. And, of course, advertisers must be able to put four-colour spreads on all the pages of the paper, something that our old press could not provide.”
After some rigorous evaluation of potential presses the company chose a KBA Commander and when it came to configuring the press with cleaning and dampening facilities, Basler Zeitung decided to test potential systems on its existing press. “We were willing to consider many different solutions and by testing the equipment from different suppliers on the old press we gained quite a clear picture of what they could deliver. We were impressed from the start by Baldwin’s products. After investigating the experience of other printers and visiting a reference facility in Sweden, the choice was quite easy. The technical performance, economic considerations such as lower maintenance costs and reduced wastage, and the possibility to work with one supplier, were all factors in Baldwin’s favour.”
Via KBA subsidiary Print Assist in Switzerland, Basler Zeitung placed an order for 64 ink train cleaners, eight applicators and 24 brakes for the roller clean system, 16 Impact Global common impression cylinder cleaners, 32 Impact Global dual-head blanket cleaners and 64 Litho Spray Optima spray dampening bars.
Marc Bönzli is service manager at Basler Zeitung. “Of course, problems of various kinds arise with such a complex installation but that’s when you really get to know that you have chosen the right supplier,” he says. “For example, with regard to equipment from Baldwin, we had specific demands for solutions to further improve user friendliness. Our close contact with Baldwin during the installation and start-up phase made it relatively easy to get the modification we needed.”
Some of the solutions developed specifically for Basler Zeitung are now available as standard Baldwin products. For example, Baldwin produced a special rack that facilitates the exchange of washcloths in its Impact Global cleaners and is now able to offer this to other printers. Baldwin’s Impact Global system for cleaning blankets and common impression cylinders uses a unique cloth called Prepac that is delivered in reels, impregnated with an environmentally friendly yet effective washing detergent. The cleaning process is highly automated and extremely efficient.
“The results are far better than that achieved by competing cleaning systems,” says Marc Bönzli. “Impact Global Prepac is also very good at removing paper build-up and its effective cleaning gives a better print quality. Another advantage of the Prepac system is that it contains such small amounts of VOC that it can be handled like ordinary waste from the plant. This saves a significant amount of money compared to traditional cleaning systems using more aggressive washing detergents, as we avoid the tax on detergents and the costs of reprocessing and destruction. It also contributes to a better working environment.
“Baldwin’s Impact Global system is very robust and requires little maintenance. The brush washing system in our old press forced us to do much more service and maintenance. We conduct an overhaul of our Global Impact cleaners every 600 hours, and exchanging the Prepac washcloth is very straightforward, which we do about every fourth week. The user friendliness of Baldwin’s products has made them very popular with our press operators.”
One major advantage of the Baldwin equipment has been the ability to keep costs of wastage low during start up and operation. “Maybe it’s a bit unfair to make a direct comparison between the old press and the new one,” says Marc Bönzli. “However, it’s interesting that we’ve been able to reduce waste by about 75 per cent. This has been helped by the common impression cylinder cleaners that permit effective cleaning at full speed with no wastage, and the spray dampening system that ensures that the amount of moisture is exactly right no matter how fast the press is running.”
Baldwin’s Constant C system, which keeps the spray nozzles free of ink, has also proved a winner at Basler Zeitung. “These are smart and robust solutions that provide exactly the quality and uniformity that we strive for in our production,” says Mr Bönzli.
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