What manroland is describing as the first installation of the Colorman ‘autoprint’ series it announced at IfraExpo 2008, has been commissioned in Osnabrück, Germany. The new press – for daily newspaper ‘Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung’ – is actually one of two lines ordered at the Ifra event in Vienna the previous year. They feature the company’s robotised ASPL plate loading system which is reducing plate change-over times to three minutes for the entire system. The paper makes 2200 plate changes each production day. Publisher Hermann Elstermann says production requirements rise steadily with print quality the most important factor: “The needs of the customers are getting more and more extraordinary and the time that is scheduled for implementation is getting significantly shorter, particularly regarding the advertising industry,” he says. The DZO print operation responds by later printing times as a result of “massively shorter” makeready times provided from the Colorman’s portfolio of automation features. Elstermann says that while APL is the logical consequence of earlier automation steps on newspaper presses, it “does not seem to be the last”. Operations manager Jens Masur says autoprint features which shorten makeready times and keep waste low include automatic cutoff register control, manroland’s QuickStart function combined with an ink roller washup device and specially designed reelchange software (using printnet). Reorganisation around the PECOM control system also brought improvements to production processes, and the company is looking at investing in reel logistics.