➤ Goss is delivering on its ‘new ways for print’ theme in Australia and New Zealand with timely new newspaper and heatset installations, and a raft of upgrades which are enhancing the return on investment of existing presslines. The first of two new four-tower Uniliner 80 presses for Fairfax Media was running ahead of schedule at the group’s Rural Press print site in Ormiston, Queensland in mid-November, while the other waits on completion of a new building in the Christchurch (New Zealand) suburb of Harewood. And on-time commissioning of an 80-page Goss Sunday 4000 commercial web at AIW Printing in August helped the Melbourne printer stay ahead in a competitive market. Elsewhere, Australia’s numerous Goss Community users have been getting more from their investment with a range of upgrades, enhancing performance and productivity with only relatively small cost. Goss vice president of Asia Pacific newspaper sales Peter Kirwan says he understands that new equipment sales may slow in tough times: “However, we have a strong team of service and technical people who are able to audit and enhance existing equipment to extend its life and improve performance with modest investment.” A full range of auxiliary items includes automatic register controls – typically bringing both better colour quality and dramatic waste reduction – and enhancements such as spray bar dampening and tabloid stitchers. With the trend among single-width users towards larger production sections, Goss has introduced an upgraded N45 folder capable of handling 12 webs and compatible with both Community and Magnum equipment. “This is an option for large Community users who want additional web capacity and speed,” says Kirwan. “It has enhanced features specially designed for semi-commercial printing applications.” One committed Goss Community user is Shepparton Newspapers in central Victoria, where a seventh four-high tower adds further capacity to a pressline which has morphed progressively from the simple mono press first commissioned in 1968. Regular upgrades – including an eight-web Universal folder and the first Goss-developed remote ink control system – have expanded the capacity and flexibility of the press investment for the family-owned company. Rural Press Printing – the country’s biggest Community user – is also continuing to upgrade, enhance and reconfigure the trusted single-width systems it has at nine centres around Australia. The focus throughout is on back-to-back colour but, it seems, enough is never enough: At the busy Murray Bridge print centre, four more four-high towers from Goss Shanghai are ready for installation, set to start this month along with motorisation, spray-bar dampening and Jardis semiautomatic reelstands. Trevor Channon, general manager of both the print centre and the thriving biweekly ‘Murray Valley Standard’ remembers the days when Goss UOP tricolour unit was enough to put them ahead of the game. The latest upgrade will allow up to 64 pages of back-to-back colour across a workload which includes the SA edition of the ‘Australian Financial Review’ and 70 other national and community titles. At another Rural Press site – the Tamworth home of the ‘Northern Daily Leader’ – a five-tower Goss Community relocated from Wagga Wagga is being refurbished and extended to provide 48 pages of full colour, with an extra tower and folder coming from elsewhere in the group. The new line replaces a much-extended and renovated Solna press. And as Australia’s newspaper presses get longer, those in the commercial web are getting wider, with Goss International a leader in the development of 80 and 96-page heatset presses. The world’s first 96-page web – a gapless Goss Sunday 5000 – is being installed at Italian printer Mazzucchelli. The blanket technology eliminates vibrations associated with blanket gaps and allows high speeds and excellent print quality to be maintained with the wider cylinder configuration. In Melbourne, AIW Printing fired up a new 80-page Goss Sunday 4000 press in August, becoming the fourth-largest heatset printer in Australia and New Zealand in the process. Chief executive Peter Clark says the company is “extremely pleased” with the smooth installation process and excited about new opportunities the press will provide: “We’re always looking for efficiencies with production and technology that is the most environmentally sound on the market.” Waste reduction is enhanced by an Ecocool dryer – with its advanced afterburner – and features throughout the system support AIW’s focus on reducing environmental impact. The 80-page Sunday 4000 system is the latest and the largest of several new Goss heatset presses that AIW has installed over the past seven years. Founded in 2000, the company specialises in newspapers, magazine and catalogue production and has secured work with many of the largest print buyers in Australia. It won a gold medal for innovation at the National Print Awards organised by the Printing Industries Association of Australia. Goss Graphic Systems Australasia Melbourne: +61(0) 3 9560 1666 matt.sharkady@gossinternational.com Sydney: +61 (0) 2 9659 4471 jim.wand@gossinternational.com www.gossinternational.com