Automation was a recurring theme when representatives of press makers Goss manroland, Mitsubishi and Wifag shared the stage at WAN-Ifra’s IfraIndia conference yesterday.

Mitsubishi’s Takashi Uchio describes automation as an “individual call” which depends on what each printer wants to achieve.

“It should be implemented to meet the requirements of the organisation,” he says.

Key purposes were to replace labour requirements, reduce energy consumption and material waste, and to maintain uniform product quality.

Uchio, who is sales vice president for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Printing and Packaging in Japan, discussed the company’s image-based Diamond Eye ink density control system.

“The new technology has made it possible to perform fully automatic, high quality printing from the beginning to the end of printing,” he says.

It works by comparing target density based on platemaking data, with results obtained by measuring the density of actual printed images acquired by an image sensor on the press, and using that to control ink density.

Uchio (pictured) says the automatic printing capability produces uniform colour at all times, greatly improving printing quality while saving energy and reducing costs such as paper waste.

Wifag sales and marketing director Noel McEvoy told delegates automation was needed to achieve operational excellence because it would achieve a standard product.

The company has extended its product family to meet customer demands for higher productivity, flexibility and semi-commercial capabilities.

“Automation can be helpful in providing high productivity from low investment,” McEvoy says.

On the demand for quality from simpler newspaper presses, Goss sales vice president Peter Kirwan introduced the compact Universal XL to deliver double-width productivity with the versatility, simplified operation and lower investment cost associated with the established Universal platform

Its format, speed and value in 4x1 and 4x2 configurations suit the design to many new press or tower addition projects. “Systems can be configured with single or double-former folders and for newspaper and semicommercial production with heatset, coldset, UV or combined capabilities,” says Kirwan.

Features include open-architecture Goss OPCS controls, DigiRail digital inking and semiautomatic plate changing.

Another 4x1 option is the Cromoman introduced by manroland Web Systems executive board member Peter Kuisle. Based on its single-width namesake, the press delivers higher production volumes and has a printing speed of 75,000 cph. “It will benefit printing houses with increased contract printing jobs, offering added flexibility,” he says. “It meets growing demands with regard to both product quality up to heatset, and flexibility with its variable web widths.”

Delegates are set to visit a new Times of India plant with a specially-configured manroland Regioman press later today (Thursday).

Picture WAN-Ifra