High profile Amsterdam daily De Telegraaf is extending presses following reconfiguration for its move to tabloid.
The project sees ten manroland Colorman presses rearranged as seven all-colour lines, making the press “even more flexible,” project manager Michaël Ellerbeck says.
“The update ensures that we are ideally equipped for the future, even with smaller runs, and can offer more product variety.”
Presses are being modified for the new tabloid format but will still be able to produce broadsheet products. Reconfiguration has been underway since the last upgrade in 2011. Five existing units and splicers have been completed with four additional units added, and a new phase is about to begin. The switch to tabloid also calls to folding and the web lead revisions, as most presses have rotary folders and older superstructures, which are being re-constructed.
Two presses get new 2:3:3 pin folders with cylinder stitchers. At four of the five presses, the existing folder superstructures will be lifted to include ribbon stitchers, and shaftless drives installed for all former and drag rollers.
Other work involves moving a satellite unit to increase the number of four-colour webs.
The first Colorman towers were installed in the mid 1980s, with the most recent units ordered in 2011. The new order is due for completion by the end of 2015.
Print and logistics director Ferdy Demmers says not only quality and costs are improved: “The extensions help us achieving a complete change to tabloid format from 2015 on, all with our existing machinery,” he says.
Pictured are project members Michaël Ellerbeck, Jos Tensen, Oscar Tresfon, Ferdy Demmers and Fred Arp from De Telegraaf as well as Sixten Zapf, Lodewijk Salomons and Matthias Schmid of manroland web systems