For many years, the economy of narrower newspaper page widths (and depths) has driven interest in three-wide systems, delivering an extra 50 per cent more pages from the same press.

Noting that, Web Specialties, based in Twin Falls, Idaho, engineered a two-web three-wide system for newspaper printers, but the company closed some years ago and owner Ken Floyd has since died.

His legacy lives on however, with ImPressions Worldwide reporting an order for an RD 136 assembly, which is currently being prepared for a repeat customer in Istanbul, Turkey.

The company’s Tom Loesch says the assembly takes two webs and converts them to four webs of uneven width, each being cut into a one-third and two-thirds arrangement. “The webs are realigned and sent down the former board on a centerline,” he says.

“Each deck of the assembly has a 3 hp AC drive that powers the infeed roller, and each assembly has one full-page motorised compensator, and four chrome-plated angle bars, two of which are stationary and two motorised.

“The system can be installed anyplace after the printing units and before the folder.”

ImPressions have tested the drive systems, and prepared drawings for the customer, with the cleaned machine ready for shipping soon.

It will be going to a Eurasian country with Asian and European influences, straddling two continents and with Istambul one of the oldest and largest cities in the world.

It has a population of 15 million and it is visited by 45 million foreign visitors each year.

“We’re proud to be part of Istanbul’s dynamic industrial landscape,” says Loesch, “contributing to its ever-evolving story, and as the two web three-wide assembly makes its way to one of the world’s most historic cities, we look forward to seeing the impact it will have on our customer’s operations.”

Alternative requirements require alternative solutions, and ImPressions also reports this system for a Goss Urbanite press which features both web splitting and stream separating. The automated 25-unit press (featured in a YouTube video) prints multiple community newspapers simultaneously.