Broughton Printers order's UK's first Baldwin Technology Jetstream 100
8/1/2007
Broughton Printers order's UK's first Baldwin Technology Jetstream 100
Broughton Printers has ordered the UK’s first Jetstream web cleaning system as part of a significant investment in Baldwin Technology equipment, which will be fitted to a new KBA Commander press due to be delivered to the Preston site later in the year. The five-tower KBA press will also be equipped with Baldwin Maxima spray dampening systems and Oxy-Dry automatic blanket cleaning technology.
The concept of automatically removing paper dust and debris from the web prior to the first printing unit is well established on the Continent, where Baldwin’s Jetsream 1000 system is becoming an increasingly popular option amongst newspaper and commercial web printers. By combining Jetstream with automatic blanket cleaning, Broughton Printers plans to obtain the maximum productivity from its new press by achieving the longest possible cycles between blanket cleaning then carrying out this process as quickly as possible.
“We conducted an extensive survey amongst European newspaper printers and one of the sites we visited was De Telegraaf in Holland,” says technical director Tim Lavell. “We were extremely impressed by the results they were achieving with Jetstream, which was enabling them to have extensive periods of production without stopping to clean blankets. The cleanliness of the press was astounding. That one visit was enough to convince us of the benefits of removing paper dust from the web before it has a chance to contaminate the press.”
Jetstream is a revolutionary approach to improving print quality, productivity and profitability on a web offset press. Jetstream’s special aerodynamic nozzle, positioned close to the web surface, works via a combination of vacuum in the cleaning module and a high velocity air flow, which moves along the web surface. The airflow breaks the boundary layer on the paper and forces the particles that were trapped in this layer into the cleaning module. An ionizing bar reduces static electricity, enabling the loose particles to be removed more easily from the web surface. The compact system requires little space, maintenance is minimal and one module will clean both sides of the paper web.
Broughton Printers has a significant amount of experience of Baldwin’s spray bars as these are fitted to all seven Goss presses at the Lancashire site. “Baldwin’s spray bar system is one product that we have on-site knowledge of and its excellent performance meant that we did not hesitate to order them for the new KBA press. The Constant C technology incorporated into the spray bars has proved Baldwin’s claims – it really does prevent nozzle blocking during production on our Goss presses. This has led to significant reductions in downtime and maintenance, with equally impressive improvements to quality and consistency. We’ve also seen a reduction in ink and water consumption as well as wastage at press state-ups.”
Broughton Printers’ new KBA Commander is scheduled to be delivered during the summer, with production trials starting in December. The company is investing around £12m in extending its factory and purchasing the press and ancillary facilities. When it is commissioned, the KBA Commander will have the capacity to print 80 pages in full colour at 80,000 cph.
“The market is growing and we need extra colour capacity, which is what the Commander will give us” says Tim Lavell. “However, even a press of this calibre needs to be combined with accessories that will automate functions, if the full potential of quality and output are to be reached. While we were researching the market for newspaper presses we saw a demonstration of the Oxy-Dry rotary brush blanket cleaning system and the results were outstanding. After speaking to the operators at length it was obvious that this would be a highly effective and fast method of automatically cleaning the blankets on the KBA press.
“The Oxy-Dry system can be programmed to clean in various ways. This includes on and off impression, with the web in or out of the blanket and at any press speed down to five revolutions per minute. Thorough cleaning takes only moments and the operator has the option to easily switch between cleaning methods. We all thought that the system looked robust and, of course, it is already well established within the newspaper industry. I think that combining the Oxy-Dry blanket cleaning technology with the Jetstream web cleaning system will result in a hugely productive press.”
Broughton Printers, which is owned by the Northern and Shell group, prints copies of the Daily Express, Daily Star and Daily Sport News, plus around 35 local titles each week such as the daily Blackpool Gazette, Wigan Evening Post and Lancashire Evening Post. The newspapers printed at the Lancashire site are delivered as far away as Birmingham, Newcastle and Scotland.
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