Krantenuitgeverijen staan al geruime tijd voor steeds grotere uitdagingen. Te denken valt aan dalende abonnementscijfers, verminderde oplage en marktpenetratie en de steeds hogere eisen aan de kwaliteit van het krantendrukwerk. Verdere problemen worden veroorzaakt door de wereldwijde overcapaciteit in bijna alle relevante krantenmarkten in combinatie met stijgende verwachtingen van de drukkwaliteit van kranten, vooral in de reclamebranche.
Dar Assabah is a tunisien press group which was founded 1951 by Habib Cheikhrouhou. The group is owned today by the family of the founder. The main title, Assabah, follows the development of the tunisien nation and is followed up since 1975 by the french title "Le Temps". Since then with other titles the group became an important player in the tunisien national press. The own car park allows the daily nationwide distribution of the two major titles.
The main titles are accompanied by numerous inserts:
Assabah and the supplements Assabah littéraire, Assabah économique, Assabah des jeunes, Assabah politique, Assabah de la famille et Assabah du dimanche
Le Temps and the supplements Bon Weekend, Le Temps Autos et Economia
Al Ousboui
Sabah Al Khair
L'Expression and its supplement Femmes de Tunisie (separate title since June 2008)
Up to 1971 the Newspaper was printed on the printing machines from "La presse de Tunisie". From 1972 to 2002 the newspaper was printed on their own GOSS, since in March 2002 the company bought a Manugraph S30 Newsline with two 4HI towers and four single units.
Innovative printing of advertising is one of the major necessities for the success of the group. And in combination with the pre-printing of inserts in the own printing plant it lead to the decision to invest in UV curing equipment to achieve the technical possibility to print on coated paper stock.
The technical parameters of a desired speed of max. 30.000 r/h and the cut-off of 578 mm were followed by the investment decision for a single lamp System from IST Metz. The system has been put into operation in December 2008 and is working in addition to the conventional coldset printing for the newspapers in the Night-Shift.
The regional newspaper «Le Quotidien Jurassien» and the weekly newspaper «La Gazette de la region» are edited by Editions D+P SA. The group has its headquarter in Délemont in the swiss Jura which is known mainly for the precision watch making industry.
Created in 1993 from the fusion of two more-than-one- hundred-year old newspapers « Le Démocrate » and « Le Pays », the Quotidien Jurassien is the first newspaper of the french speaking swiss Jura today. The printing of the newspaper is assured by the «Centre d'impression et d'arts graphiques Pressor SA» in Délemont (WWW.PRESSOR.CH).
To enlarge commercial activities and to response to the growing demand for local high quality colour inserts the group decided end of 2007 to invest more than 8 Million swiss Francs in new technology. Edgar Santschi, the responsible technical Director, explains that the replacement of the existing SOLNA-Distributor with a 48 pages WIFAG OF-7 could only be done with a new building to assure a trouble free production of the daily newspaper. The new double width machine has a web width of 130 cm and a cut-off of 940 mm. Maximum machine speed is 35.000 U/h from which results a web speed of 9,14 m/s. The pre-press is equipped with an AGFA workflow and CTP for AGFA Amigo plates. Mailroom handling is assured with equipment from Müller-Martini.
The UV installation on top of the two OF7 cylinder units for recto and verso-printing consists in three dryers per web side and assures absolute production reliability. The BLK-3 UV System has been specially developed to meet the demands in high speed web offset machines and is designed for reduced air flow and an efficient water-cooled heat management.
Constant tempature level
Water-cooling of the shutters, reflectors and housing ensures that excess heat is efficiently removed from the press. Also, the integrated air-cooling system guarantees consistent operation of the UV lamp. Mainly the robustness and energy efficiency of the system lead to the decision by Pressor to decide for IST-UV. The system does'nt require any Nitrogen supplies and fulfills therefore the demand for low consumption costs and high reliability.
ELC Electronic power supply device
BLK-3 UV systems are equipped with ELC electronic controls. The integrated output control and electronic controls of the ELC power supply device optimise production safety. The ELC device provides the benefits of high electronic efficiency and reduced operating costs due to its low energy consumption.
"We named our company "Rainbow Printing" to refer to the light spectrum, from which we will use the UV light to cure our printing inks in future", explains Managing Director Mr. Pierre Delferriere.
"Rainbow Printing" was founded in 1991 in Nivelles, near Brussels, expanding the activities of the already established semi-commercial printing plant "Imprimerie Delferriere" with UV curing technology.
"Imprimerie Delferriere" started as a family owned printing business in the 1930s. In 1983, the advertising newspaper, created by Mr. Delferriere and his father, had seen a significant increase in the number of pages. As a result the company invested in its first rotary offset machine. Since then, two more rotary offset presses have been acquired. All three machines, supplied by American manufacturer "Web Press Corporation", are single-width presses with a single circumference of 578 mm. This enables the company to print 8, 24 and 32 pages in tabloid and magazine format. Their main activity is the printing of semi-commercials, advertising and communal newspapers. Famous examples of their commercial customers are the Dutch retail group "Blokker" and "CASA" - a retailer for gifts, furniture and tableware. Production runs vary from 5 to 50.000 copies in the low-volume segment and from 50.000 to 1 Million copies in the high-volume segment (tabloid and magazine format). The presses are operating from Monday to Friday in a three-shift system.
"We have been contemplating the option of UV curing for some time, because we consider it an answer to the market's demand for quality" explains Mr. Delferriere the company move towards UV. Heatset dryers require too much room and demand high initial investment. And Infrared dryers cannot deliver the desired performance. In addition, there is the disadvantage of having to invest in re-humidification and combustion. The environmentally-friendly use of UV presented itself as an attractive alternative to heatset drying, because no carbon-dioxides are emitted during the curing process. In order to evaluate the feasibility and assess advantages of UV curing technology, we travelled to South and North America, where the use of UV on single-width presses has been common practice for some time.
After review of our findings we drew up an investment plan for a new printing press, which would accommodate our customers growing demand for a high quality end product. With the new two-tower 4HI Global Web Systems machine (type G145 Platinum), which was installed at the end of May in the new 1700 m2 building adjacent to the existing premises, Mr Delferriere hopes to tap new opportunities and open up new markets. The aim is to successfully enter niche markets within the conventional Heatset market. With a maximum paper width of 880 mm and a cut-off of 630 mm, the first step of the installation will make it possible to produce 32 pages A4 or 64 pages A5 using the integrated plow folder. The second step of the installation, scheduled for 2009, is to extend the two 4HI towers, which will allow production of 64 pages in A4.
The OPI (Open pre-press interface) front-end system of "Imprimerie Delferriere" with the extension of two plate-setters from Fuji and Escher-Grad, will deliver the required plates. The only addition in the print room is an oven to bake the plates before usage. No major changes in the existing work-flow concept were necessary, except for the creation of new colour profiles adjusted to the different dot gain of approximately 5%.
Both towers are equipped with IST METZ UV-Technology. The IST BLK-3 UV system achieves high production speeds at low energy costs. The units are equipped with FLC (Fast Lamp Change) and URS reflector technology. The installation was done "2 over 2" on top of the towers to avoid contact and the necessity to change web direction. The complete installation comprises 8 UV lamps with a power of 160 kW each. "The choice for IST was based on my firm conviction, that there is no other UV supplier who would be able to offer a system that combines the greatest possible efficiency of dryers with a very high UV output. Another reason for my decision was IST's capability to respond quickly to our service and maintenance requests". The units are water-cooled, which ensures that the air-conditioning is not affected. The BLK-3 system is equipped with ELC (Electronic Lamp Control), which is installed in the switch cabinet close to the press. The ELC power supply unit assures highly efficient energy consumption during running of the press and in stand-by mode. Energy output is controlled and recorded consistently, which allows assessment of every print job.
This new press at our Nivelles plant is currently attracting attention from all over the Coldset industry. Several studies have been undertaken on the implementation of UV technology on single-width and double-width coldset presses in the newspaper industry and the findings are waiting to be put into practice. The Nivelles press installation represents an important milestone in the quest for a wider use of UV technology within the printing industry.