When Good Gets Even Better – System Optimization by Baldwin

9/19/2008

When Good Gets Even Better – System Optimization by Baldwin Ensures Top-Quality Cylinder Blanket Cleaning

Efficient presses are essential for cost-effective production of quality newspapers and other coldset printed products and Baldwin’s process automation technology plays a major role in enabling this. Having such systems professionally optimised by the manufacturer's service organisation, on an individual basis, can improve efficiency even more. As the example of Espace Media in Bern, Switzerland, goes to show, this benefits not only quality and production but also economic efficiency.

Today, versatility is key to the production of newspapers, especially with wider format presses. Espace Media operates a 1,920 mm wide KBA Commander 6/2 newspaper press, which was officially put into operation in the spring of 2005. By the following year, the number of printing towers had increased from seven to nine. The press consists of three identical lines, each capable of printing 72 pages of Swiss standard newspaper format or 144 tabloid pages in full colour.

Titles include the Berner Zeitung and Der Bund, both available from Monday to Saturday with circulations of 170,000 and 60,000 respectively. In addition, Espace Media handles a part contract for the free newspapers Zwanzig Minuten and News, printing 134,000 and 50,000 copies of each. Furthermore, numerous gazettes (advertising journals) are regularly on the production schedule, including the twice weekly Berner Bär.

A broad spectrum of printing products

Espace Media prints a wide range of products over and above newspapers, and the formidable printing capacity of the KBA is targeted at work ranging from direct mailings, newsletters and magazines to catalogues, inserts and advertising material. This is an offer that is clearly catching on as press utilisation is around 75 per cent.

At the Espace Media printing facility in Zentweg, Bern, daytime production is dominated by magazines such as Automobil Revue and various other printed products, for example, the weekly publications of the largest Swiss food retailers Migros and Coop. A split run of 550,000 copies of Migros-Magazin is printed on Fridays, and approximately 350,000 copies of Coopzeitung are produced each Monday.

“They are our biggest individual orders and high quality standards are especially important for these print runs”, says Beni Kiser, Print Production Manager. “Our ultimate goal is to ensure maximum print quality. Our production process is influenced by numerous factors. For this reason, controls and process optimization always feature highly on our agenda.”

The decision to equip the KBA Commander press with an automatic Baldwin ImpactGlobal blanket cleaning system is not only part of the quest for ever greater print quality, but also a desire to achieve higher cost efficiency and shorter start-up times. In each of the 18 nine-cylinder satellite printing units that make up the press line, two ImpactGlobal double washing bars clean two blanket cylinders each. Furthermore, each nine-cylinder satellite unit has an automatic Baldwin impression cylinder cleaning unit, which keeps the combined impression cylinders clean. The Baldwin Impact system is used with Prepac. Beni Kiser explains why they consistently rely on cloth technology.

“The most important thing for us is that there is the same basic prerequisite with every cleaning cycle. That is the case with the ImpactGlobal system because it always works with a fresh and clean section of Prepac. This ensures we achieve the best cleaning results. Also, the system is not demanding in terms of calibration, maintenance and cleaning, whilst rolls can be changed and replaced quickly – even given the width of our press.”

Mission: system optimization

What works well can also offer opportunities for further optimization. Therefore, Espace Media engaged the service offered by Baldwin to optimise the cleaning parameters of the ImpactGlobal system. This was necessary following the discovery that hard residue remained on the blankets after the cleaning process had finished. This residue was pushed into the blanket surface, thereby impairing durability and reducing the lifetime of the blankets. The blankets are attached to metal carriers by special cylinder plates, which are mounted in so-called minigaps. A mixture of printing ink and dust is deposited in these very small channels, which can become encrusted and the dirt particles eventually migrate across the blanket, if unchecked.

As regards the optimization process, the specification provided to Baldwin was to clean the blankets without leaving behind any residue whatsoever, and without prolonging the time taken to clean blankets or to increase the amount of cloth used. Normally, there are approximately 200 waste copies when blankets are cleaned during a print run at a decelerated printing speed of about 10,000 cylinder rotations per hour.

A service specialist from Baldwin’s Competence Centre for Newspapers in Arlöv, Sweden, performed the system optimization on site. First of all, he checked the mechanical base settings of the cleaning units and carried out adjustments where necessary. The engineer spent a total of four days on site, most of which was spent optimising the ImpactGlobal cleaning system. The service technician performed all of the work on the press towers or control panels that were not being used at the time. Consequently, ongoing production was not affected by the optimization measures being carried out.

“The Baldwin service technician thoroughly analysed the problem and methodically optimised the cleaning process – not least of all by making specific adjustments to the cleaning program,” says Beni Kiser. “I have rarely seen such a professional technician at work. He was focussed on the job in hand and achieved exactly what we wanted: absolutely spotless blankets which are also so dry that we can immediately start production again.”

The improvement resulted from a finely balanced increase in the frequency of cleaning steps (engagements and retractions of the cleaning element to the blanket) per cleaning cycle, which led to a slightly higher cloth consumption but without prolonging the time required for the cleaning cycle. The consumables used have not changed - Baldwin Prepac.

Cleaning intervals prolonged by 50%, with a reduction in the amount of cloth.

It is not solely due to the improvements in blanket cleaning that have made the system optimization performed by Baldwin so worthwhile. It has also been possible to prolong the intervals for production washing. Instead of needing to carry out intermediate blanket cleaning after printing 80,000 copies, this is now only necessary after 120,000 copies. This means the frequency with which blankets need to be cleaned has been reduced by 50%, with equivalent savings made in cloth usage. “The result is exactly what we wanted,” says Beni Kiser.

However, Baldwin not only ensures that the press’s printing units are automatically cleaned, but also that this is the case at the reel splicer stage. In the summer of 2007, a Baldwin Jetstream system for removing dust from the paper web was installed for the KBA’s nine reel splicers. The contactless Jetstream units are integrated into the infeed units. They continuously remove loose fibres and debris from the web during operation before they have a chance to come into contact with the work being printed. By retrofitting Jetstream, Espace Media aims to increase the durability of plates by eliminating the abrasive effect of dust, whilst also improving print quality in general.
During an average week, up to nine kilograms of dust and dirt accumulate in the central filter station of the Baldwin Jetstream system. As the removal of dust from the web helps to counter an excessive build-up of dust on the blankets, the Jetstream system also represents an ideal addition to the ImpactGlobal blanket cleaning system, which is part of Baldwin’s ‘system provider strategy’.

---