Netherlands-headquartered QI Press Controls says Newsprinters UK's go-ahead to equip its Broxbourne and Eurocentral sites is the largest in its history.

Newsprinters - which prints News UK titles including The Sun and The Times, as well as contract publications such as the Daily Telegraph - has been exploring register and colour control options with specialist vendors including QI and US-headquartered QuadTech, the latter at its Knowsley print site.

QI Press Controls has now equipped all 60 of the triple-wide manroland Colorman XXL towers at Broxbourne, just north of London, and the 12 at Eurocentral near Glasgow, with its IDS-3D technology following an order last October. The system includes fountain-water control and an automatic mist shield system.

Newsprinters UK managing director Steve Whitehead says that, following detailed evaluation over three years, they have determined that the QI system can "reliably fulfil our criteria for an automatic density control system". The criteria include accurate colour control, automatically optimising dampening control, printing fault detection with a management information system to record quality. "These systems provide a significant condition monitoring capability at a capital and operating cost that can provide a reasonable return on investment," he says.

The giant 87,000 m2 Broxbourne plant accommodates 12 Colorman XXL presses, capable of producing a million 120-page tabloids an hour. Its three sites produce 1.5 trillion copies annually.

QI says the IDS-3D order will lead to a reduction in production and maintenance costs, and marks the continuation of their working relationship: "QI Press Controls have remained a responsive and diligent partner throughout the long evaluation process," says Whitehead. "Newsprinters is investing in its future by buying in the best quality."

QI managing director Menno Jansen (pictured with Whitehead) says the 134-camera order represents "another important landmark" following successful installations at News in Brisbane and Sydney: "We will continue to harness (our) innovative strength in our collaboration with Newsprinters in order to develop new ideas which will help bring about further automation and improvement of the printing process."

Pictured: The giant Broxbourne print site