SWUG Brisbane July 2012

July 2012
All aboard at
Ormiston
Uniliner
press
pulls a
crowd
APN takes home extra awards S
This year saw an expansion of the
SWUG Awards for newspaper
production with the addition of the
Norske Skog shield for double-width
newspapers.
T
he addition of a new category for double-width
papers certainly worked in favour of APN Print
(NZ), enabling the Kiwis to collect two awards
on the night.
The company kicked off its successful evening by
taking home first prize in the Best Overall Four Colour
APN Print (NZ) shared two of the major prizes
at the SWUG awards with Russell Wieck (left)
from Ellerslie collecting the inaugural Norske
Skog shield for Best Overall Quality for a
Double-Width newspaper, while Russell
Johnston from the APN Print Hastings site
picked up the DIC shield for Best Overall Four
Colour Newspaper.
Newspaper category, won by the Hastings print centre
for its production of Hawkes Bay Today, while the
Ellerslie site won the inaugural Norske Skog shield for
Best Overall Quality for a Double-Width newspaper
with The New Zealand Herald (see p12 for full results
and pics).
Rural Press Printing in Ballarat kept the flag flying
for the locals with first place in the Best Overall Print
Quality category, winning the Brissett Shield for its
production of the Bendigo Advertiser.
Horton Media dominated the Coldset Commercial
Publication category, taking the top three positions
and winning the Flint Group shield for its production
of the Hinterland Times at its Queensland site.
Other sites to take home prizes included past
winners Mandurah and Fairfax Regional Printers while
the Gisborne Herald completed a triumphant night for
the Kiwis with runner-up in the Best Overall Four
Colour Newspaper category.
This year’s host site, Ormiston, pleased the locals,
taking out the highly commended and runner-up
prizes in the double-width category for its production
of the Australian Financial Review.
Overall, the judges praised the high standard of
entries this year with the winning entry in all four
categories scoring equal to or better than 90%. The
overall highest score was 95% - an incredible
achievement given the stringent judging.
In the individual awards, the Apprentice of the Year
was awarded to Joe Vaz from Newsprinters in
Shepparton, while Tristan Couzens from RPP
Mandurah picked up the $20,000 bi-annual travel
scholarship to be used for a worldwide tour of print
centres as well as attending the drupa trade show.
Due to the high standard of applications for this
scholarship, Dean McManus from Fairfax Regional
Printers at Beresfield was also awarded a $10,000
scholarship for overseas travel including a visit to drupa.
The awards dinner marked an enjoyable climax to
the two-day conference attended by about 200
delegates and partners.
The crowd was entertained by string trio, String
Diva, with their high-powered performance of classics
and popular songs.
Peter Kirwan of Goss was also a special recipient of
an award on the night with a presentation being made
in honour of the company’s on-going support of
SWUG over 26 years.
WUG delegates were eager to climb
aboard the Goss Uniliner 80 press
running at the Ormiston print centre
during the Saturday night visit to the site.
Newspaper production staff from 32
print centres around Australia and New
Zealand attended this year’s SWUG
conference held in Brisbane, and while
numbers were down slightly, it was still an
excellent turn-out given the tough times in
the industry.
Over the course of two days, delegates
heard from a wide variety of speakers on
topics such as new harmonised safety
regulations, reducing start-up waste and the
fundamentals of machine lubrication.
In addition to the Saturday night visit to
Ormiston, a Friday night welcome function
was also hosted by Kodak at the Brisbane
Convention Centre on Southbank.
The popular ‘Who Am I’ presentations
this year included speakers from Dubbo,
Queensland Newspaper at Murarrie, and
the Gold Coast Bulletin.
This year’s industry profile was
presented by Gary Osborne, general
manager at APN Print, who talked about
his career and life in the newspaper
industry on the Sunshine Coast.
SWUG Apprentices of the Year from
Mildura in Australia and APN Print at
Tauranga in New Zealand also gave their
maiden presentations to the conference.
The Sunday afternoon engineers session
during which delegates get to ask questions
of suppliers and other press users was
extended this year to allow more
opportunity for discussion from the floor.
Topics raised covered a range of maintenance issues from last year as well as
several new problems.
There was a particular focus this year on
safe lifting procedures for heavy
components with a number of solutions
being suggested.
Print sites were also urged to check their
power factor correction units following a
number of fires in recent years due to faulty
units.
The highlight of the weekend for many
though was the performance of Uniliner
press at Ormiston, the first time that the
SWUG conference has been hosted by a
double width press site.
Delegates enjoyed the opportunity to get
up close with the press as it was running and it was a rare sight to see so many
printers on the same press at the same time.
While SWUG delegates were eager to clamber up and down the walkways at
Ormiston while the press was running (top), it was a different story when the
bar opened and the BBQ fired up, with the press hall quickly emptying (above).
SWUG is published by Agricultural Publishers Pty Ltd
159 Bells Line of Road North Richmond NSW 2754
Publisher: Bob Lockley Advertising: Anita White
Editor: Simon Enticknap
SWUG is published twice a year and distributed free to qualified
members of the printing industry.
Contributions can be sent to:
c/o The Editor, SWUG, PO Box 212, Newtown, NSW 2042
email simon@enticknap.com.au
Stay informed about SWUG
For all the latest news and information about SWUG, including
details about next year’s conference, how to enter the
competitions and scholarships, pictures of previous award
winners as well as copies of this newspaper for download or
on-screen reading, check out the SWUG web site.
www.swug.com.au
No portion in full or part of this publication may be reproduced without the
express permission of the publisher in writing.
Fiddles, flags and a song or two
1
As usual, the SWUG conference is not all
2
about learning and listening - there’s also
plenty of opportunity to celebrate our
young achievers, enjoy some
entertainment and maybe even discover
the secret of happiness...
3
5
1. Not one but two: The high standard of
applicants for this year’s SWUG Leadership
scholarship resulted in both Dean McManus from
Fairfax Regional Printers (left) and Tristan
Couzens from RPP Mandurah being awarded
scholarships to a total value of $30,000. Well done
and congratulations to both of them.
2. Peter Tkachuk of Baldwin (centre) has long
been a loyal supporter of SWUG and the single
width newspaper industry. This year he once again
donated the President’s prize on behalf of Baldwin
which went to the host site, Ormiston, represented
by Mark Dibble (left).
3. Happiness is… Author and cartoonist Andrew
Matthews was this year’s special guest speaker,
passing on his tips for finding happiness in life –
and no, it doesn’t all involve making jokes about
New Zealand (although that seems to work too).
4. Take a bow: The dynamic trio, String Diva,
provided glamorous and melodic entertainment at
the awards dinner.
5. All together now… maybe not quite as melodic
but just as much fun, delegates enjoyed a singalong
at the Saturday night BBQ at Ormiston.
6. Donate between the flags: The Ormiston BBQ
provided the ideal opportunity for the local Surf
Life Saving and Rotary clubs to raise some money,
ably assisted by Mark Dibble (left) and Bob
Lockley (right).
6
4
3
SWUG July 2012
Getting hands-on at Ormiston enjoyed by all
donating $500 on top of the donations
collected from the whip around with
the delegates at the BBQ.
Well done to everyone who helped a
worthwhile cause.
Sunday we were up and running
early with almost a 100% turnout.
We heard from the judging panel of
the SWUG Awards who said the
standard this year was fantastic with
winning scores of over 90%.
The quality overall has again
improved on the previous years. The
judges set a target a few years ago and
you have exceeded it – well done. The
judges were very impressed.
We finished the day’s session with
the Industry Profile from Gary
Osborne who has had a great career in
the industry starting from the bottom
and working his way to the top.
This industry profile has always
been designed to show how people
from the floor can make it right
through the ranks of a great industry.
Congratulations to Gary.
Our special guest speaker for the day
was Andrew Matthews the cartoonist
who certainly had a few important
messages for us all.
President’s report
T
he 26th Annual SWUG
Conference was held this year
in Brisbane. The weather was
perfect and the delegates came from all
over Australia as well as a large contingent from New Zealand. The
numbers topped over 200 delegates.
The many speakers covered a raft of
subjects including supplier updates,
health and safety audits, waste
management, the report on the
Apprentice of the Year tour, good
ideas from different suppliers, plenty of
‘Who am I?’ talks and some good
information on oils, plus up-to-date
information on health and safety
legislation and how harmonisation
seems to be the buzz word for this area.
The Friday night welcome function
sponsored by Kodak (a great effort
under the circumstances) was greatly
appreciated.
This year it was held in the Brisbane
Convention Centre where delegates
could mingle and meet prior to the
start of the busy days of conference
sessions on Saturday and Sunday.
On the Saturday evening, we
departed for the tour of the Ormiston
plant which was impeccably presented
- congratulations to the Ormiston
team.
It was an absolute joy for people to
be able to walk over, touch and feel the
state-of-the-art press with its very
unconventional configuration. I’m
sure it was enjoyed by all.
The Saturday night food fest was
something a little different this year,
being very well catered for by Rotary.
It was a pleasure to work with the
Rotary members who volunteer their
time, and the money that is paid to
Rotary goes back into community.
We also held a fundraiser for the
local Point Lookout Surf Club. It was
great to be able to help with SWUG
Gala Presentation Night
“
It was an
absolute joy
for people to
be able to
walk over,
touch and feel
the state-ofthe-art press.”
Announcing the winners at our Gala
Dinner is always a fitting end to the
conference.
There were plenty of prizes to be
won throughout the night, and this
year also saw the announcement of our
biennial Leadership Scholarship worth
$20,000 including a trip around the
world and a visit to drupa.
For the first time, we also
announced a runner-up award this
year for $10,000 and a trip to drupa.
The two young winners, Tristan
Couzens and Dean McManus, are
well-deserved and a great asset to our
industry.
There was over $30,000 worth of
prizes from the suppliers up for grabs
in this year’s awards. These prizes are
always well-received by the competition entry winners and as they are
usually in the form of consumables, I
am sure they go a long way towards
helping each of the print sites.
This year New Zealand scooped the
pool and it was great to see them do so
well.
Many of their presses are of the
older generation not state-of-the-art,
so it just goes to prove you don’t need
a new press in order to produce good
quality products.
Congratulations to our New
Zealand and Australian winners and
well done to all.
SWUG Support
Once again thanks to our SWUG
Patron, the Graphic Arts Merchants
Association of Australia (GAMAA) for
their continued support.
GAMAA has certainly been a great
supporter of our organisation over the
years which we really appreciate.
Indeed, what the Association does for
the industry in general in all facets of
printing, not just in the newspaper
area, is a credit to them.
We really appreciate and thank all
our major sponsors, Goss, Kodak,
manroland and Norske Skog. And to
all our other sponsors, thank you for
your continued support: Agfa, Ace
Rollers, Baldwin, Böttcher, Brissett
Rollers, Day International, DIC, DS
Chemport, Ferag, Flint Group,
Fujifilm, GSB, KBA, Müller Martini
and Oceanic Multitrading.
Even in these times of uncertainty
our suppliers continue to support
SWUG – Thank You.
We all know it is a great conference
to attend as a supplier, to be able to
network with a huge amount of print
centres over two days; you can
certainly get your message across.
Congratulations to all the winners
and to all the delegates for attending
and thank you to the SWUG
Committee, especially Anita White, for
helping to organise this event.
We look forward to seeing you all
next year. The venue for next year has
not yet been decided, but keep your
eye on the website for any updates
www.swug.com.au.
Best Regards
Bob Lockley
Support
our
sponsors
Goss – SWUG’s most loyal supporter
The SWUG committee would like to thank all our generous
SWUG vice-president, Geoff Austin, gave a
sponsors for their support of the 2012 SWUG conference.
special presentation at the conference in
recognition of the 26 years of support that
Goss has provided to SWUG.
oss has been at the heart of newspaper printing in
Australia, and the SWUG conference in particular,
for several decades now.
Geoff recalled when the first single width newspaper press
was installed in the early 1960s, a Goss Suburban press
installed in Melbourne at Waverley Press.
This was quickly followed by a number of other presses
being installed including at Progress Press, then owned by
publisher Peter Isaacson. He was influential in forming the
Australia-New Zealand Web Offset Newspaper Association
(which later became PANPA), a production conference
similar to SWUG.
Offset newspaper presses were rapidly installed throughout regional Australia over the next 20 years, mainly Goss
Suburban, Urbanite and Community presses, with a smaller
number in metropolitan areas.
When SWUG was formed in 1985, Goss was there at the
beginning and, along with Patrick Hegarty at PANPA, Peter
Kirwan was instrumental in getting it going.
In the early days, it was known as the Goss Single Width
Users Group because most of the presses then were Goss
models. Later on, the conference was opened up to other
single width users and, more recently, to double width users
as well.
“SWUG has a lot of great sponsors and supporters but
Goss was there in 1985 right at the start and has not left our
side since,” said Geoff.
Over the years, Goss has supported the conference by
regularly supplying speakers such as Fred Arkwright from
the UK, Bob Main who was the local engineer and Dick
Schultz, vice president of sales from the US.
The conference has visited 18 Goss printing sites in 26
conferences and, each year, the company hosts the SWUG
awards dinner.
“Thank you for your support over the past 26 years,” said
Geoff. “We look forward to your support in the future and
thank you very much for what you’ve done for SWUG.”
G
SWUG patron
Major sponsors
Conference sponsors
Peter Kirwan of Goss (left) received a special award
from SWUG President, Bob Lockley, in recognition
of his support for SWUG over the past 26 years.
Agfa, Baldwin, Böttcher, Brissett Rollers,
Day International, DIC Australia,
DS Chemport, Ferag, Flint Ink, Fujifilm,
GSB Chemicals, KBA, Müller Martini and
Oceanic Multitrading.
4
SWUG July 2012
SWUG apprentice sees the big picture
Apprentices
A
fourth year apprentice last year
when he entered the SWUG
Apprentice of the Year award,
Travis O’Donnell has now qualified as
a printer, although he admits that he
still has a lot to learn.
The tour of east coast printing sites
and suppliers that Travis won as a
result of being runner-up in the 2011
SWUG Apprentice of the Year award
certainly went a long way towards
furthering his industry education.
As Travis said during his conference
presentation, the trip was a chance “to
see some really big and great print
sites” in contrast with his usual work
environment at the Sunraysia Daily in
Mildura where the pressline comprises
three 4-high towers, a tri-colour and a
mono unit.
“It was really just a great opportunity
to see that there are bigger and better
things out there other than just where I
am now,” he said.
The tour kicked off in Melbourne
where, accompanied by Damian
Balkin, the first stop on his itinerary
was the News Limited Herald and
Weekly Times site, the size of which
immediately impressed him.
In fact, the site is so large it has its
own gym and a garage where staff can
get their cars serviced.
The weekly throughput of about
1,800 tonnes of newsprint, compared
to just 15 tonnes at the Sunraysia Daily,
also made an impression on him, while
the automated publishing room was a
total contrast to the Mildura print site
where the inserting is carried out by
hand.
After HWT, it was on to Franklin
Web which, with 11 presses on site,
likewise impressed Travis with the
scale of its operations.
Here, he was shown round by Phil
Taylor who told him that the main aim
of the site was to do the job once and
once only, in other words to make sure
the quality is right so it doesn’t have to
be done again.
One innovation that Travis learnt
about was that the site not only
recycles the usual waste materials but
also collects the dust from the air,
converting it into pellets which are
then sent for recycling.
Whilst at Franklin Web, Travis was
also given the opportunity to try his
hand at the Synapse virtual web
control to see how he would manage
running a large heatset press.
Travelling from Mildura in Victoria to some of the biggest
print sites in the country certainly proved to be an eyeopener for SWUG apprentice, Travis O’Donnell.
A chance to catch up
The following day started off with
visits to two industry suppliers in
Melbourne, DS Chemport and
Rollmakers.
Here he learnt about the processes
involved in making blankets and rollers
as well as other consumables such as
fount solution and cleaning products.
Next up was a car journey out to
Ballarat where he caught up with Paul
Kelly and Shane West who showed
him around the site which features a
nine tower Uniset single width press.
The stopover also provided an
opportunity to socialise with other
printers, something which Travis
wishes happened more often.
The next day brought another early
start to the Norske Skog mill at Albury
where Travis learnt all about the
process of turning wood chips and
waste paper into newsprint.
Then it was onto the Border Mail at
Albury where Travis noted that the site
with its five tower double width press
was “as clean as a brand new house”.
Day 4 began with a flight to Sydney
and a taxi ride to News Limited at
“
It was really
just a great
opportunity to
see that there
are bigger and
better things
out there other
than just where
I am now.”
Chullora, one of the biggest print sites
in the country, where he was met by
Sean Tait.
“This site I recommend people go to
if they want to see a big press
operation,” he said, noting how the
newspapers speed off in all directions
from the presses. “It’s a very fast-paced
place to be in.”
This was followed by an inspection
of the Flint Ink facility including the
production area where the ink is mixed
and the laboratory where it is quality
controlled.
“Extensive testing goes into making
the ink and what is done before it
arrives at your workplace is unbelievable,” said Travis.
Next it was off to North Richmond
where Travis got to inspect the coldset
and heatset towers and remarked on
the teamwork of the staff.
“One thing I liked is that the staff in
the plate room and the publishing area
have to come out and help clean the
press sometimes,” he said.
The final stage of Travis’s tour took
him to the Torch in Bankstown where
he immediately felt at home.
One notable aspect of the facility
which runs five 4-high towers, three
coldset and two heatset, is that the
manual ink filling deliberately forces
the printers to leave the control room
so they can hear the press running and
pick up on any potential faults.
Looking back on his trip, Travis said
he had spent as much time in the reel
stores, publishing and despatch areas
as in the press halls because, in
Mildura, he is expected to work in
these areas as well.
“I think the jobs that go unnoticed
are also the important ones,” he said.
“Every company should treat every
person, from the tea person to the guy
or gal who stacks the pallet at the end
of the line, fairly in the workplace
because without each job and each
individual, papers would just not get
out on to the street.”
Travis thanked his boss, Jeremy
Blake, for nominating him for the
award, the Sunraysia Daily and the
SWUG committee for paying his
expenses, Damian Balkin and Sean
Tait for accompanying him, and “every
other person I’ve met along the way”.
NZ Apprentice wins Queensland trip
THE 2011/12 New Zealand SWUG Apprentice of the Year,
Jamie Melgren from APN Print (pictured), won an all-expenses
paid trip to Brisbane to attend the local SWUG conference as
part of his winning prize.
Jamie works at the APN Print site at Tauranga in New Zealand
where he began his apprenticeship.
Prior to becoming a printer, Jamie worked in the supply side of
the industry for Webco, the local agent for DGM and
Manugraph presses.
Whilst there, he was lucky enough to go on a couple of
overseas trips, firstly to install a DGM 4-high tower in New
Caledonia and then to remove a press from the former
Sunshine Coast Daily site at Maroochydore.
After four years at Webco, Jamie decided on a change of
scenery and jumped at the opportunity to work at APN Print,
quickly demonstrating his skills and aptitude for learning in
his new environment.
“Having done my apprenticeship, I have no regrets,” he said. “I
love the job in the printing industry. It was the best decision I
ever made, APN is a great company to work for.”
On tour with Travis
(from the top):
Travis O’Donnell tries his
hand at running a heatset
press at Franklin Web; with
Franklin Web owner, Phil
Taylor (above); a novel
recycling technology at
Franklin Web, dried pellets of
dust collected from the air;
the Border Mail site at Albury
which impressed Travis with
its cleanliness; and the News
Limited presses at Chullora
in Sydney, the site that Travis
recommends for people who
want to see a big press in
operation.
5
SWUG July 2012
A print life filled with Sunshine
Industry profile
The current general manager of APN
Print, Gary Osborne (right), gave this
year’s industry profile, looking back
over a lifetime of family, sport and,
of course, newspaper printing on
the Sunshine Coast.
G
ary grew up on Queensland’s Sunshine
Coast and has spent all of his working life
there, primarily working for APN News
& Media which publishes the Sunshine Coast
Daily newspaper.
In his current role at APN Print, Gary says he is
fortunate in that he is able to continue living
locally and still commute daily to the Sunshine
Coast Daily plant at Yandina where, for many
years, he was the production manager.
This is a result of APN being a regional-based
company, formed from the amalgamation of
many smaller titles.
Married for 40 years, Gary raised his family in
the area and, away from printing, has always been
active in one sporting activity or another –
surfing, golf, motor-cross, karate and go-carts.
Motor bikes, too, have been a constant factor in
his life and he still enjoys taking off to go for a ride
through this beautiful region. “I just can’t get it
out of my blood,” he commented.
His career in printing began as a teenager when
he started an apprenticeship at the local
newspaper, although he had previously worked
during school holidays at a local print shop in
Maroochydore.
The first press he worked on was a single colour
KORD platen which required washing up after
each colour, although there wasn’t a lot of four
colour work to do back then.
“It was a grubby job but I enjoyed running
around in board shorts and thongs and going for
a surf at lunchtime. It was a good life,” said Gary.
Back then too, hot metal type was still being
used which had to be melted down for re-use in
the Linotype machines.
There wasn’t much in the way of health and
safety regulation in those days, said Gary,
although people used their common sense,
something which still applies today.
“I think if we used our common sense most of
the time we wouldn’t be far off doing too badly.”
After completing his apprenticeship, Gary went
off travelling for while and then, on his return,
dropped in to visit his old workplace and was
offered a job.
The local paper eventually became one of the
many independently-owned titles that were
amalgamated to form the current APN News &
Media.
Later on, the paper - and Gary - moved to a new
site in Maroochydore where the company
installed a Goss Community press, mostly for
running mono work with some spot colours.
One of the more unusual pieces of equipment
in use at the time was a Pyrofax plate maker which
employed a two part process for imaging and
developing plates; it was quicker than film but no
good for four colour work.
When opportunity knocks
Gary’s big opportunity came when he was offered
the position of assistant production manager at
the Sunshine Coast Daily, knowing that the
production manager at that time was due for
retirement. It was an opportunity too good to
pass up.
“One thing I’ve learned along the way is that if
you work hard and you’re good at your work
you’ll get opportunities,” said Gary.
“You should always take every opportunity
you can get. Jump on them and don’t look back.”
Eventually he became production manager at
the Sunshine Coast Daily, a position he held for a
number of years. In this role he oversaw a number
of important developments for the company
including moving to the current site at Yandina,
visited by SWUG in 2007.
This is home to the unique combination press
featuring 64 pages of manroland Regioman
double width coldset at one end, and 16 pages of
Uniset single width heatset at the other.
The flexibility of the press also allows for fourpage jumps in pagination, an important requirement for regional papers, said Gary.
Several years ago, APN decided to split off the
print component of its operations into a separate
division, a decision which Gary says was all about
“making publishers accountable for their actions”.
As a result, Gary became GM for the print
division and, best of all, was able to stay on his
beloved Sunshine Coast.
“Some people like to move around with different
companies but I was happy to progress my career
with APN as long as I was enjoying the challenge
and making a difference,” he added.
“
If you work hard
and you’re good at
your work you’ll get
opportunities.”
Because performance is profit
More than rollers …
Rollers
Blankets
Böttcher is the independent global brand,
passionately evolving products to help you
reduce waste, improve quality and up-time,
whilst working towards a VOC free environment.
Pressroom chemicals
Balanced system solutions
Head Office
Unit C, 2 Hudson Avenue
Castle Hill NSW 2154
+61 (2) 9659 2722
Branches
Victoria
Queensland
National Free call: 1800 204 102
www.boettcher.de
Integrity, innovation, quality and reliability.
Or simply … 280 years of Böttcher know how.
6
SWUG July 2012
The voices of experience
Who Am I?
A
first-time speaker at SWUG,
Charlie Fletcher from the Rural
Press Printing site at Dubbo
outlined the success that the site has
achieved over the past few months
implementing new health and safety
measures, a process which has resulted
in it winning recognition via industry
awards.
In August 2011, the site won the
PANPA Health & Safety award and
followed it up in November with the
gold award for OH&S initiatives at the
NSW PICA awards.
The impetus for the changes at
Dubbo came about when the site
underwent an upgrade to improve
safety, quality and on-time delivery.
As part of the upgrade, the workforce got behind new initiatives to
address OH&S in the workplace.
“We went from a work site that did
lots of things manually and inefficiently… to being a site that
delivers quality, meets deadlines and,
most importantly, we do it in a safe
manner with a team that cares about
the result,” said Charlie.
One of the most notable aspects of
the new OH&S approach involved
fitting additional safety guards to the
Goss Community press towers.
Each tower was fitted with an extra
16 interlocking safety guards, in
addition to the existing guards, to
prevent accidental access to the press
while running.
A new Y-shaped guard with a single
hinge and magnetic interlock system
was fitted to the side frames, while new
guards were fitted in front of the water
and ink rollers with easy access for
plate changing and maintenance.
The folder was also fitted with new
guards to completely cover all nip
points at the front and side of the
folder.
In addition to the machinery upgrades, Charlie said considerable time
and effort, backed by management
support, had also been invested in
developing new OH&S procedures for
the entire site.
As a result, new processes were
developed covering topics such as staff
training, audits and emergency
evacuation drills.
Staff now meet for toolbox meetings
every night and the team meets once a
fortnight at shift changeover for
OH&S consultation meetings.
This consultation is contributing to
improvements in OH&S due to a
greater awareness and ownership of
the program by staff.
“All the staff have the opportunity to
put forward issues and suggest ideas to
make the workplace better,” said
Charlie.
Look, no processor
Another development at the site was
the trialling of Kodak Thermal Direct
process-free plates which are imaged
on a typical Trendsetter CTP unit but
then processed on the press during
make-ready.
This system offers a number of
advantages including eliminating the
need to invest in processing equipment, the elimination of chemicals on
site, no OH&S waste issues, no waste
disposal and no maintenance costs for
the processor.
The only adjustment required to the
Trendsetter was to increase the
exposure time for the plates although
this was offset by not having to develop
the plates afterwards.
On the press, the plate is processed
Nothing can match the knowledge and expertise gained
from years spent working in the newspaper industry. The
value of this experience was once again on display at the
SWUG conference with the speakers in the ‘Who Am I?’
sessions presenting their first-hand accounts of life on the
production floor.
“
The person
who is master
of patience is
the master of
everything else.”
during make-ready before the ink
rollers are engaged, with the discarded
plate coating being removed and
transferred to the make-ready sheet.
Charlie said the image produced by
the new plates was “clear and bright”
with run lengths of around 100,000
impressions.
The plates are daylight sensitive so
anybody looking to use them would
have to implement yellow-light
working conditions in prepress. The
ink rollers on older presses may also
need to be de-calcified to allow the
plates to accept the inks.
Patience is the key
Having originally trained as a
carpenter (a skill which was superbly
demonstrated at the SWUG conference with samples of his handiwork), Charlie’s career in the industry
began when he started delivering local
newspapers in Dubbo.
He then joined the publishing room
where he worked for 15 years, 10 of
them as supervisor, and then, 18
months ago, applied for the position of
site manager at Dubbo.
“With the support of management, I
was given this chance and now
contribute to an operation which
produces 31 mastheads a week,” he
said.
During his career, the lessons
Charlie has learned along the way
(apart from the importance of breath
control when lamb marking) include
accepting that we don’t always get
what we want, not being afraid to take
chances and make mistakes, the
importance of treating others in the
manner with which you expect to be
treated, and the need to be patient.
“The importance of patience cannot
be overstated. With patience comes
focus and with focus you can achieve
anything,” he said.
“The person who is master of
patience is the master of everything
else.”
News improves all the time
Noel Brennan from Queensland
Newspapers at Murarrie outlined how
that site has been benefiting from a
continuous improvement program
that focuses on web breaks.
The Murarrie plant currently
produces the Courier Mail, the Sunday
Mail, The Australian plus preprints and
community newspapers.
The site runs four manroland
Newsman double width presses, each
comprising three 6-couple units, one
4-couple satellite unit and one 8couple tower.
The presses are fed by seven flying
paster reel stands and there are four
3:2 folders, three of which have inline
stitching which was added last year.
In the publishing room, each press
line has two Ferag inserting drums and
four off-line winders. A Ferag rotary
trimmer was also installed last year
running at 60,000cph. There are also
eight sticky note applicators.
Currently the site consumes about
950 tonnes of newsprint per week and
produces about 6 million copies with
an average wastage rate of around 3%.
The site also uses 8 tonnes of Huber
colour ink per week, 7 tonnes of Flint
black ink and 12,500 Agfa N91V
plates.
Speaking from experience: The accumulated industry knowledge from
the ‘Who Am I?’ speakers had something of value to offer to SWUG
delegates. Above left, Charlie Fletcher from Dubbo, Noel Brennan
from News Limited Murarrie (top) and Mike Molloy from the Gold
Coast Bulletin (above).
Noel has been working at Murarrie
since 2000 following a career that
included stints with Rural Press at
Gympie, Ormiston and North
Richmond as well as Fairfax Printers in
Chullora.
In his current role, he is the
continuous improvement coordinator,
a task which involves collecting and
analysing data, reviewing all processes,
challenging the status quo and
engaging people through the continuous improvement program.
In 2008, having completed a course
in competitive manufacturing, the
team at Murarrie decided to focus on
web breaks as a starting point for
changing the way they operate.
In the financial year 2007/08, the
site experienced 1,607 web breaks.
After cleaning all the equipment and
setting the data to zero, the first step
was to install reel stand cameras which
enabled them to see problems before
they arose and collect accurate data on
the web breaks.
Weekly web break meetings were
held to analyse the data and review the
root cause of the breaks.
“By exploring the video footage of
the web breaks, we could identify the
root cause of some of the faults that
were previously unexplained,” said
Noel.
Kym Leonard from Norske Skog
also began to sit in on the web break
meetings enabling feedback to be sent
back to the mill to address any paper
manufacturing faults.
At the same time, the site moved to
change from 1,145mm to 1,160mm
diameter reels, thereby reducing reel
consumption and the number of pastes
by 3,300 per year.
This meant that for an outlay of
$22,000, the site had the potential to
reduce web breaks by 86 per year with
minimal effort.
The larger reels also meant fewer
truck movements for Norske Skog,
fewer crane movements in the store,
fewer materials and less core waste.
Overall, the change produced a saving
of $150,000 in the first year.
Reel-life cameras
The next step was to install rear-facing
reel stand cameras on three reel stands,
making it easier to inspect what was
happening and view the functionality
of the reel stands more closely – “a very
powerful tool,” said Noel.
Since 2008, the team has reviewed
every web break as well as every press
pull-up caused by a reel stand fault that
could potentially lead to a break.
This could be anything from an
incomplete paste sequence, low air
pressure, operator error, or an electrical/mechanical error.
So far this financial year, the site is
running at 361 breaks, close to its
target of 1% of the reels used, and
down from the figure of 2.6% in
2007/08, a significant improvement.
“Our best weekly average is two
breaks. Our ultimate goal is zero and
through our relentless pursuit we will
get there,” added Noel.
In answer to questions from the
floor, Noel said the main cause of the
web breaks had been identified as
primarily mechanical, resulting in the
replacement of all the air lines in the
7
SWUG July 2012
reel stands and an electrical overhaul
from top to bottom.
All the web break meetings have a
cross-section of people attending
including electrical and mechanical
engineers.
There were some initial concerns
from staff about the installation of the
cameras but once they understood the
purpose of the monitoring and how it
might help, it was not an issue.
Moving forward, Noel’s role is to
investigate the top five ‘waste events’
each week and to look at how they can
be continuously improved. He also
recommended the training of staff in
competitive manufacturing.
“The best possible thing you can do
is get as many people through that
program as you can so that everybody
is on the same page,” he said. “I would
encourage anybody to put their people
through it as it is a fantastic course.”
Gold Coast finds gold
The Gold Coast Bulletin plant in
Queensland has been expanding the
range of products it offers to
advertisers, according to Mike Molloy,
print centre manager.
Recent innovations include the use
of fluorescent gold ink for full-page
Harvey Norman ads, the addition of
post-it notes, unique numbering for
each copy, ‘brand bands’ at the top or
bottom of the page, and double
panorama page widths.
The double panorama is the
equivalent of four broadsheet pages
and is created by gluing two single
pages to the outside edge of a two-page
spread.
“We like trying new things at the
Gold Coast so we’ve embarked on
trying to give advertising as many
different things for them to go out and
sell,” said Mike.
Mike is another newspaper professional whose career began in the
publishing room, having originally
started work as a hand inserter on
Brisbane’s Sunday Mail during his final
year at school.
Having acquired a taste for the
newspaper business, he completed an
apprenticeship as a compositor at the
former Brisbane evening paper, The
Telegraph.
After working in the commercial
print sector for a few years, Mike
returned to the Courier-Mail in 1989
and moved to the Murarrie plant in
1995 as a platemaker.
A number of different production
Making the changes: Two sites that are working to improve how they
operate are RPP Dubbo (left and top left) which has installed more
interlocking guards on its Goss Community towers, and Queensland
Newspapers at Murarrie (above) which has installed cameras on its
reelstands to analyse how web breaks occur and reduce spoilage.
roles followed before he became
publishing manager in 2007 and then,
in 2010, transferred to the Gold Coast
Bulletin as print centre manager.
The Gold Coast site, which SWUG
visited in 2004, currently runs a nine
tower KBA Comet single width press
with two jaw folders, one with quarter
fold and 10 reel stands. The publishing
room runs a Ferag inserting system
with SNTU rotary trimmer.
The site uses about 300 tonnes of
newsprint per week, mainly 42gsm as
well as 52gsm Norbright and a small
amount of 60gsm Norstar.
Weekly output is about 2.1 million
copies for 50 different editions/
products. The main titles produced
include the Gold Coast Bulletin six
times per week, local editions of the
Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
for the Sunshine Coast to Coffs
Harbour region, and five editions of
the Gold Coast Sun community paper.
The current spoilage rate for the site
is just over 3% and its best make-ready
on press is 150 copies on a 64-page
product, 250 copies on a 144-page
product which is using the full press.
Mike said that News Ltd is currently
undergoing a lot of change which will
be good for the print sites around the
country, and he regards it as a great
place to work.
“I don’t have any trouble any day
getting up to go to work as I
thoroughly enjoy myself and hope to
continue in my role in the future.”
Ormiston marches to a different drum beat
Mark Dibble is the site manager at the
Ormiston plant and, prior to the SWUG visit
to the plant, he outlined the history to this
unique facility as well as something of his
own printing background.
THE Ormiston plant proved to be one of the more unusual
sites that SWUG has visited in recent years, not only
because it is the first double width press site to host the
conference but also because of its unique configuration.
Mark himself came to Ormiston in the 1980s when he
moved from the Gympie Times to work on the new Goss
Community press. Back then, the pressline comprised
mono and tri-colour units which were used to produce
four-colour work.
As Mark highlighted, a lot of work went through the old
plant and the press itself continued to expand, including
at one point having a tower at right angles to the press
running a famously long web lead.
In 2008, the site was upgraded with the current Goss
Uniliner 80 (pictured) and Ferag mailroom. A unique
feature of this set-up, as Mark pointed out, is having the
towers side on rather than inline, as well as the ability to
print variable width webs.
The press also features a web slitter at the top of each
tower rather than in the folder and turner bars which turn
the web at right angles in line with the folder.
“That’s the secret of it. It’s so simple but I’m surprised
no-one had thought of it before,” said Mark.
Printing is a surer bet
Mark’s own career in the industry began not as a printer
but rather a rubber stamp maker for Harding Colour in
Brisbane.
At the time, he was also a drummer in a local band
which achieved some success, winning competitions and
supporting Sherbet in concert.
Realising that the world of rock ‘n’ roll might not turn
out to be the most secure career path, Mark became an
apprentice printer, working initially on an old Chandler
and Price hand-fed letterpress press and then switching
to offset and joining the Gympie Times.
8
SWUG July 2012
Don’t let your waste...
Waste management
Recycling and waste management is big
business these days and no-one is bigger
in this region than Transpacific. Sales
...GO TO
WASTE
manager, Mark Harvey, outlined the range
of services available to printers today to
help them cut costs.
ewspaper sites have the
opportunity to turn their waste
into revenue and, at the very
least, make it cost-neutral to their
operations.
That was the message to delegates
from Mark Harvey from waste
management company, Transpacific,
which has its head office in Brisbane.
Transpacific is the largest waste
management provider in Australia and
New Zealand with more than 300
locations around the region including
45 processing facilities.
The company offers a wide range of
waste management services covering
everything from wheelie bins to
demolition.
It operates on the basis that all waste
is a resource, whether it’s items such as
paper and cardboard that can be
recycled or general waste that goes to
landfill and gives off gases that can be
used elsewhere.
The goal is to reduce waste as much
as possible, reusing resources to
reduce consumption and, wherever
reduction and reuse are not possible,
recycling in order to minimise
environmental impacts.
“Whenever I go anywhere, the first
thing I do is stick my head in
someone’s rubbish bin, and it’s easy to
identify how much product is in there
that can be recycled,” said Mark.
Safety is a key concern for the
company, encompassing everything
from vehicle maintenance to training
of staff and working with suppliers and
N
customers to ensure that work is
carried out properly.
When the company first starts
working with a client, it carries out a
full site audit to ensure there is no
equipment, people or environmental
issues that could cause harm to the
people doing the job.
Transpacific works with its clients to
meet their sustainability and
environmental
goals
including
compliance with all regulatory requirements, safe disposal of all waste and
education of staff to maximise waste
recovery.
The company is currently certified
to ISO 9001 (Quality), ISO 14001
(Environment) and AS 4801 (OHS)
standards
Ingham Enterprises, the large poultry
supplier, to redirect 90% of that
company’s waste from going to landfill.
The company provides specialist
resources to work one-on-one with
clients to solve problems and find
solutions to minimise waste and
maximise recycling and reuse.
“If we can work with people, that
makes good business sense for us but it
also makes very, very good business
sense for our clients,” said Mark. “We
need to be working on solutions all the
Adding value to waste
Apart from the safety and compliance
aspects, Transpacific also works to add
value to its clients in their waste
management.
Examples of Transpacific’s business
programs include collecting waste oil
from 35,000 automotive workshops
and refining it into premium grade
lubricant base stocks, saving the
equivalent of 943,000 barrels of oil per
annum.
The company also works with
time. Just because something is being
done a certain way today doesn’t mean
it’s the best way.”
To keep track of all the waste,
Transpacific provides month-bymonth and quarterly reports that show
how much waste and recycling is being
done by each site, enabling clients to
chart their progress and map any
improvements.
Harvest time
The Harvest program was set up by
Transpacific several years ago to
ensure that the company was able to
totally capture recycling opportunities
for people. It is based around capturing
specific products that have a commodity value.
Items such as cardboard, paper,
shrinkwrap/bubblewrap and polystyrene are all commodities and, when
collected in sufficient quantities, can
be used to offset the cost of collection.
The capital equipment used in the
collection of these materials, such as
balers and compactors, can be written
off through the contract at no or
minimal cost to the client.
“The bigger the volume you have
available, the more opportunities there
are to make your plant more efficient,”
said Mark.
With one particular customer in
Brisbane, for instance, their waste
management is now effectively costneutral with the rebate for the recycled
materials negating the cost of the
service.
“It just comes down to talking to
people, identifying what you have,
what needs to be done, how it needs to
be dealt with and putting the best
systems in place,” said Mark.
“There is a huge opportunity for
people to save money and to make
money, so don’t be too frightened to
ask the question,” he concluded.
Transpacific – at a glance
Mark Harvey, Transpacific.
• Publicly-listed company with annual revenues of more than $2 billion
• 300 locations across Australasia with more than 6,500 staff
• 45 major processing facilities
• More than 300 products and services
• Australia’s largest waste management fleet with more than 3,600 vehicles.
Belgians close the loop on press
Press controls
H
ighlighting the contribution
that automated press controls
can make towards reducing
costs, Menno Jansen from QI Press
Controls presented a case study from a
Belgian printing company, Coldset
Printing Partners.
Coldset Printing Partners was
formed when two large Belgian media
groups, Corelio and Concentra,
merged their printing activities and
formed a joint venture.
Up until 2008, they were regarded as
printers with their own newspapers but
today they also do commercial work
for third parties.
The company has two print facilities
in Brussels and Paal-Beringen, both of
which have now been configured by
QI Press Controls.
In total, there are three presses on
these sites, comprising 33 double
width, double around towers with 11
folders.
The presses include a KBA Commander with nine towers and three
folders (installed in 2007), a KBA
Commander with 12 towers and four
folders (installed in 2000), and a
Menno Jansen from QI Press
Controls.
manroland Colorman also with 12
towers and four folders (also installed
in 2000).
According to Menno, the market
costs in Belgium show that paper
accounts for about 50% of total costs.
In addition, wages are increasing by 3%
annually while circulations are going
down.
As a result, in order to become more
efficient, the challenge facing the
company was to reduce paper costs
and manning levels on the presses.
“Basically, they wanted to do more
with less people,” said Menno.
The solution was to install more
automation on the presses. Prior to
this, the company had already invested
in reelstand automation and the
prepress and mailroom were fully
automated, so the only gap that
remained was the press itself.
To give an understanding of what
automation can deliver, Menno used
the calculation of a printer running two
4-high towers for 32 pages with one
folder.
Combining colour and registration
controls, the printer is required to
monitor and adjust a total of 1,358
corrections, too many for a single
person to control at top speed.
Coldset Printing Partners was
looking at a total automation solution
to reduce manual interventions so it
invested in closed-loop colour control
and registration control including fanout compensators.
The goal was also to standardise the
output to ISO 12647-3 in order to
eliminate the variable quality between
identical products printed on different
presses which was the cause of
complaints from customers.
The project called for a single
supplier – which was QI Press
The QI Press Control monitoring camera in operation at Coldset
Printing Partners in Belgium.
Controls – and the inclusion of
extensive reporting capabilities that
covered not only production data but
also quality reports so that managers
were able to view and report on any
quality issues.
The project started in 2009 on the
Colorman press and included a
number of KPIs such as lower start-up
waste, increased quality as measured
by L.a.b values, and reduced manning.
During the trial period, they were
able to reduce waste by 25% and shut
down two out of the three control
desks so that the press was being
operated by one person.
They also managed to reduce
quality-related claims by printing
identical products from each pressline,
thereby guaranteeing that all the
advertisements were similar.
The successful implementation led
to improved bottom line results with a
payback period of less than two years
and a stronger competitive position in
the market.
This resulted in an order being
placed for the other plant and now the
entire 33 towers are covered by the
closed loop system.
9
SWUG July 2012
Reducing spoilage takes teamwork
Performance
R
educing start-up waste and
building team morale was the
topic of a presentation by
Michael Gee in conjunction with Sean
Tait and Michael Vankka from North
Richmond.
The topic followed on from a
previous presentation by Michael
Aubrey from FRP at Newcastle a few
years ago at SWUG which was also
entitled ‘Every Copy Counts’.
This presentation focused on a
recent project carried out at the North
Richmond site aimed at reducing press
start-up spoilage.
The background to the project was
that the site was seen to be suffering
from miscommunication between
shifts. In particular, each shift had
developed its own methods of setting
the press during start-up.
“Although each successful in its own
right, there were many differences in
the way procedures were carried out on
each shift,” said Michael Gee. “One
common trait from the observations I
made was that all shifts didn’t really use
the press’s automation to its optimum.”
As a result, it was decided to create a
project team with the goal of reducing
spoilage on the press by utilising its
automated systems as well as improving
communication and co-operation between all shifts and operators.
The goal of the project was to
reduce press start-up spoilage by 200
copies per job over a two week period
on regular weekly jobs. This was to be
achieved by utilising the existing press
automated systems to make the startup more efficient.
One of the main issues which had the
Working as a team: (l-r) Sean
Tait, Michael Vankka and
Michael Gee from North
Richmond.
potential to affect the outcome of the
project was the staff. To overcome this
issue, all three shift supervisors became
part of the team to ensure that each
shift had a representative and a voice,
thereby increasing communication.
Meetings were held with each shift
so that all parties knew beforehand
what was happening and that their cooperation was needed for success.
Setting a standard
One of the key outcomes that the team
wanted to achieve was a set of standard
press procedures that could be agreed
on so that they would be followed by
all operators.
The fact that the press automation
was not being used was due in part to
the fact that the printers felt it was too
slow and that they could do it better
than the press.
However, as an example of how the
press systems can function, Michael
Gee recalled an incident in which a
unit which had been left unattended
managed to reproduce a certain ad
with perfect rego and colour balance
despite not being touched.
“That just proves that the press can
do the work,” he said.
In setting the project’s objectives,
the team tried to be very specific.
“This ensured everyone knew
exactly what was the focus without
getting off track,” said Michael Vankka.
“They say that simplicity is the key to
success so we tried to make it as simple
as possible.”
Initially, in order to fine tune the
press’s automation, sample copies
were analysed to see how the press was
performing and to make necessary
adjustments to the start up and shut
down sequences.
All staff were then informed of the
changes and shown how to implement
the processes.
“By fine tuning them we were able to
achieve an outcome where, in theory,
the high skilled operator and the lower
skilled operator should effectively be
able to walk up to the press, load the
presets and achieve the same style,”
said Michael Vankka.
Communication was a key factor in
getting the changes implemented so
meetings were held between staff and
management at which feedback and
ideas were encouraged, using the
experience and knowledge of the staff
involved.
As a result, all the operators were
motivated to accept the new procedures and encouraged each other to
adopt the guidelines.
“At some point, it actually became a
competition to see who could get the
lowest make-readies,” said Michael. “It
was great to see communication at an
all-time high.”
The project deliverables included
issues, discuss what wasn’t working
and prioritise what needed fixing.
Analysis of training was completed
which highlighted the areas in which
staff required training, and this was
completed by the team leaders.
Specifications from suppliers were
also investigated to ensure the
equipment was being used in the
correct manner.
By analysing the issues and having a
set plan, the team was able to identify
quickly any underlying issues and
address them through mediation.
“Staff identified their roles in the
project and it became a cohesive team
environment allowing us to have a
clear plan with specific goals,” said
Michael Vankka.
During the project, it was important
not to deviate from the agreed path
and not to change too many things too
quickly in case it confused people.
reduced spoilage, better managed
press systems, a more profitable site as
a result of reduced costs, and increased
teamwork.
As evidence of this, comments were
recorded during this process which
showed the increase in morale. For
example: “I was bored but now I come
to work and actually think about what I
am doing and how I can improve.”
As a result, management knew that
all workers were working toward the
same goal.
“If staff are involved in the process
and know more information about all
aspects of their job, they become more
productive and motivated,” said Sean.
“As the project evolved, the staff took
ownership of the project and had a
renewed interest in their job.”
An incentive scheme was also set up
for the staff whereby they gained
monetary benefits if spoilage targets
are met. This also demonstrated
management’s willingness to invest in
the scheme.
Some of the risks associated with the
project included the possibility of the
new ideas being rejected by staff, new
procedures going in the wrong
direction causing problems and extra
spoilage, and tension between staff
members and shifts.
“The team… had to make the press
crews adhere to the plans and asked for
feedback if it was or was not working,”
said Sean. “This 360 degree feedback
was essential to everyone’s buy-in to
the project and its success.”
“Time needed to be set aside to talk,
counsel and coach staff to find out
what they had issues with in relation to
the project.”
The project team also met to discuss
feedback, raise any maintenance
Bottom line results
In the first week of the project, average
make-ready copies of each product
were reduced by 266 copies, and by
633 copies in week 2.
This equates to a saving of
approximately $3,285 per week, which
is an overall saving of $170,842 per
annum.
The next step is to formulate the
start-up procedures in writing so that
each console has a step-by-step
procedure written down so that
everybody knows exactly what to do.
The procedures will be monitored
for a month and the settings further
investigated and fine-tuned.
The project will then be expanded to
take in extra staff, including in the
publishing room, and to look at overall
wastage across the production process.
EasySert
Inserting on the way
EasyPrice
Q Low basic costs – modular expansion
Q Unbeatable price / performance ratio
EasyHandling
Q Easy to master settings
Q Minimum set-up times – high operating security
EasyTechnology
Q New ideas, proven high-performance technology
Q High-level functionality, simple sequences
Ferag Australia Pty Ltd
Unit 6b / 190–196 Bourke Road
Alexandria, NSW 2015
Australia
Phone +61 2 8337 9777
Fax +61 2 8337 9788
info@ferag-australia.com
www.ferag-australia.com
021_300_Easysert_210x148_E_AUS 1
18.06.10 08:42
10
SWUG July 2012
Big presses keep on rolling
Press updates
Delegates heard from the three main web offset press
Heavy metal heroes: new presses from the major manufacturers include
(l-r) the massive Sunday 5000 from Goss, the new Commander CL
from KBA, and the ever-popular manroland Lithoman heatset press.
manufacturers – KBA, Goss and manroland - about the
F
irst up was Günter Noll from
KBA who gave an interesting
overview of the current market
situation and how the global demand
for print is changing.
This transformation is characterised
by stagnant or declining markets for
print in industrialised countries,
mainly due to the growth in online
media, contrasted with growing
demand for print in ‘threshold’
countries (India, China, Brazil) driven
by rising levels of literacy and
prosperity.
This is particularly noticeable in the
packaging print market which is
influenced by rising GDP levels.
Digital print is continuing to grow at
the expense of offset and screen
printing although it is affecting the
sheetfed print market, especially small
format, more than web offset; in the
web offset market for newspapers and
catalogues, the main threat comes
from online media.
Overall though, the global print
volume is growing at between 3 to 5%
per year.
In the global market for web offset
presses, orders for newspaper presses
fell by over a third between 2010 and
2011 while demand for commercial
presses was marginally higher than in
2010.
Overall, the web offset market is
about 60% smaller than it was before
the GFC.
The internet has transformed the
newspaper sector dramatically. For
example, in the US, one of the biggest
publishing markets, KBA sold two
presses in two years.
Shared printing plants and outsourcing are trimming the installed
press base and consolidation among
commercial printers is in full swing.
Looking further ahead, the forecast
is for demand for web presses to grow
slowly to 2014 while remaining at
about a third of the size of the market
in 2005.
Even this modest post-2012 growth
largely depends on drupa boosting
demand as well as political resolution
of the sovereign debt issues and the
state of the global economy.
current state of the market and the latest developments in
press technology.
[Germany] from the last 21 projects,
we took in 18,” said Günter.
In addition, the company has a
strong standing in specialised niche
markets such as security printing,
metal decorating and coding devices
which offer high growth potential.
In terms of new web press developments, Günter highlighted the new
Commander CL press, a compact Htype 4-high press with the option of
semi or fully automatic plate changing.
“With this press, you can start from
scratch with manual plate mounting
and, at any time, implement an automatic or semi-automatic plate
changer,” said Günter.
The CL press uses the same threeroller inking unit from the successful
Commander CT series of which 120
towers have been installed over four
years.
According to the US Patent Board,
KBA ranked 11th out of 120 heavy
engineering companies in the US for
technological innovation, the highest
of all press manufacturers.
An example of this innovation is the
new digital inkjet press, the RotaJET
Günter Noll from KBA.
Happy to be in newspapers
KBA itself saw a 21% increase in orders
for both sheetfed and web offset over
2011 and the order backlog grew by
nearly 90%, primarily for web presses
in emerging regional markets.
The company now claims a 35%
market share of the web offset market,
roughly equal with manroland,
although KBA says it is stronger in
newspapers.
“We are happy in that field, talking
about the newspaper side. To give you
an example, in our home market
“
We are happy
in that field,
talking about
the newspaper
side.”
76, which the company has developed
with RR Donnelley with the aim of
more closely integrating offset and
digital systems.
The RotaJET 76, launched at drupa,
is specifically aimed at the book,
commercial, packaging and security
printing markets as well as newspapers.
New Magnum fires up
Matt Hancock from Goss reported
that the press manufacturer is still
seeing strong sales in the Asia Pacific,
Middle East and Africa while the
domestic Chinese market is also
strong.
The SSC and Magnum family of
presses continue to be the best-selling
Goss product of all time and are now
joined by the new Magnum HPS press.
This press has been engineered for
the export market and has undergone
IFRA testing at the Shanghai factory
running at 70,000cph.
The Fujian Daily has also
been in production with
the press for about six
months and is performing
well.
The press features
variable cut-offs from 546
to 578mm and comes in
two models rated at
50,000cph and 70,000cph.
It is a conventional twopage across (single width),
one plate around format like most of
the Community presses with a
maximum web width of 914mm.
The HPS is a shaftless press with
spray bars, motorised ink keys and
motorised registration as standard
features. It also features slot gap plate
lock-up, blanket and plate cylinder
bearers, high quality three-ring
bearings and centralised greasing.
Optional features include three
forme inking, heatset and UV configurations, quarter fold and double
parallel folding.
Another new press from Goss is the
90,000cph Colorliner CPS for double
or triple width printing, offering very
high print quality, simple operation
and a reliable platform.
The CPS or Compact Printing
System press has a 4.5 metre high 4high tower as well as a space-saving 2.7
metre wide footprint which means that
it can fit into all types of buildings.
It is also designed to make the web
lead as small as possible, only 2.7
metres between the 1st and 4th levels,
which helps to improve print quality
and reduce fan-out.
Features include spray bar
dampening with Baldwin LithoSpray
bars with Constant C technology, the
option of conventional or metalbacked blankets, semi or fully
automatic plate changing, and a 2:5:5
jaw folder running up 96 pages
broadsheet.
The CPS combines some of the best
technology from other Goss presses
such as the printing cylinder bearings
and Autoplate from the Sunday 4000
series, the drum oscillating mechanism
and short web lead from the FPS
series, and the semi-automatic plate
change and OPCS controls from the
UniLiner.
One press has already been ordered
and is being installed at DC Thomson
in the UK, an eight tower configuration that includes both coldset
and heatset.
Shanghai adds controls
Goss has also announced an update to
its press control software from Goss
Shanghai with the addition of a page
control facility that enables quality
functions to be adjusted by selecting
the page.
The new Magnum HPS press
from Goss.
This takes the Shanghai controls to a
similar level as the Omnicon system
and is available for Community and
Magnum presses with any drive type as
well as an enhancement to Community
and Magnum presses with Version 5.0
control software.
“A lot of the bigger presses these
days have these options, but it’s good
now we have smaller presses with the
same sort of features to make it easier
for printers,” said Matt.
Previewing its drupa showing, Matt
said that Goss would be unveiling its
latest technology for the packaging
market in the form of the Sunday Vpak
series of presses with variable cut-offs
targeting the folding carton, flexible
packaging, labels and direct mail
markets.
One of the highlights at the show
was also the massive 2860mm wide
web unit for the Sunday 5000 capable
of printing 96 pages in a single pass at
90,000cph.
Happy to be here
The big news from John Ostler of
manroland was that he was able to
make it to SWUG this year after the
company unexpectedly went into
administration late last year.
After the initial shock of the
announcement, the outcome has
worked out very well indeed for the
web offset side of the business, having
now been taken over by wellestablished German engineering
group, Possehl.
Locally, John said the business is
strong with good cash flow, helped by
the fact that, during the period of the
administration, customers rallied
round in a way which enabled it to
keep going and retain staff.
“The response was, quite frankly,
heart-warming,” he said.
Customers were affected for a short
period with some delays in deliveries
but this was soon followed by the
announcement of the new ownership
on 31st January 2012.
As a result, the company is now back
on a strong footing and preparing for
the arrival of two new major heatset
presses in Australia this year.
The local operation is now 100%
owned by manroland web systems in
Augsburg, Germany, which, according
to John, means an even greater level of
support and services being delivered to
the region.
The Tele Support Centre remains in
full operation and the company’s
service strength continues to grow.
Even during the administration
period, an additional two web service
staff were employed, and the company
now has 37 employees with a
significant spare parts holding in
Australia.
“Yes, there will be challenges as
things settle down but with the new
foundations we believe we are set now
for a very, very strong future,” said
John.
Manufacturing background
The Possehl Group comprises 10
manufacturing companies, all operating as individual companies and
covering such diverse products as
industrial cleaning equipment, plastic
extrusion machinery, textile finishing
and printing, electronic manufacturing,
precious metal processing, special
purpose construction materials and
international trading in minerals – as
well as now manroland.
Globally, the company is now being
sized to suit the capacities of today’s
market and the volume of presses that
the market is going to consume.
“We are establishing medium-sized
11
SWUG July 2012
Get set for QuickSet
Andy Stephens from Global Press Technologies (pictured)
introduced the QuickSet ink presetting system from the
US, a software package for profiling a press’s ink keys in
order to quickly achieve target ink densities.
THE QuickSet package has been making an impact in the US, according to
Andy, where there are up to 100 installations on presses of different types.
The system is designed to reduce make-ready waste by between 50-85%
on presses.
“There’s nothing else on the market, including CIP3, that will fix your
colour quicker than this system,” said Andy. “It saves you lots of money, lots
of paper and lots of time.”
Two Uniliner presses installed at Sing Tao, the original pressline on the left and the latest installation on
the right – custom-painted red in Sing Tao’s corporate colours.
Headline is big news in HK
As a good example of how
the newspaper market is
So, for instance, on a press running 32 pages tabloid with start-up waste
of 1,000 copies in order to get good colour, reducing that figure by 50% will
save about $137,280 based on 60 make-readies per week.
QuickSet works by reading a standard test forme that has been printed on
the press and then calculating how the ink keys should be set in advance to
achieve correct ink densities.
This eliminates the need to continually check and adjust ink keys during
start-up, thereby saving time and consumables as well as making life easier
for the printer.
evolving, particularly in the
fast-moving free
newspaper sector, Peter
Kirwan of Goss outlined
the phenomenal growth of
Sing Tao News Corporation
structures and thinking. We will
continue to be a high performance
business partner,” said John.
“One of the great things about being
bought by a manufacturing backed
company is the fact that R&D is a core
competency.”
Continuing developments at
manroland web systems include the
autoprint philosophy, new operating
concepts, the further development of
the 96-page commercial presses, the
introduction of the new Colorman
e:line press, press updates and
extensions, and the digital partnership
with Océ.
Autoprint is the name given to the
combination of control systems and
closed loop systems designed to work
as one so that the press controls itself
and the printer becomes the system
manager.
So far, 16 customers have chosen
some form of Colorman autoprint
with 12 in operation. The uptake of
robotic plate loading has also been
significant with a total of 232 APL
robots sold.
The new Colorman e:line press
encompasses the idea of future
proofing whereby the basic press is
designed to be able to accept any
upgrade - such as auto job changing,
inline density control, full APL, and
closed loop systems – over the lifetime
of the press.
In commercial presses there is a new
Lithoman 32-page long grain press
while the massive 96-page Lithoman
continues to be rolled out with four
presses sold.
Press refurbishments are also
becoming a growing part of the
business with a range of upgrades,
retro-fitting and reconfiguration
options available for existing presses.
In the digital sector, manroland is
partnering with Océ to complement its
leading high-speed digital printing
technology with manroland folding
and finishing solutions for the
production of books and magazines.
Here you go mate, you deserve this: Bob Lockley presents John Ostler
of manroland websystems with a special Andrew Matthews cartoon for
having escaped the ‘pit’ of financial troubles.
in Hong Kong.
THE Hong Kong newspaper
market is one of the most dynamic
in the world with numerous free
papers with circulations of up to 1
million copies as well as several
high circulation paid papers.
In total, there are over 4 million
newspapers printed every day for
a population of about 7 million.
“It’s an exciting market and, the
point is, the free newspapers have
really taken over,” said Peter.
Sing Tao were originally
publishers of the traditional
Chinese broadsheet Sing Tao and
the English-language tabloid Hong
Kong Standard, both paid papers.
In January 2007, it decided to
take the bold move to launch a
free Chinese tabloid paper called
Headline Daily.
In the early months, this was
contract printed and had a
circulation of 100,000 copies of 48
pages tabloid.
In order to increase capacity,
both in circulation and pagination,
the publishers ordered their first
press, a five tower Goss Uniliner S
with the capacity of 80 pages
tabloid at 80,000cph.
The decision to buy this press
was made after visiting the Border
Mail in Albury which has a similar
press. At the time, the target was
to increase circulation to 300,000
copies of 64-72 pages.
By November 2007, the Headline
Daily had gained strong market
acceptance following the
installation of the Uniliner S and it
was evident that they had to
increase capacity to meet the
market demands.
Paginations had increased to 80
pages and the circulation was
approaching 400,000 in a short
space of time.
As a result, an order was placed
for a three tower Uniliner (4 x 2)
press to be installed in line with
the existing press in order to share
capacity or to be run as individual
presses.
The following year, based on the
success of the Headline Daily, the
decision was made to convert the
Hong Kong Standard to a free
product as well.
The Standard was struggling at
32-36 pages with a circulation of
around 20,000; today it is
consistently at 48-64 pages and
has a circulation of 250,000.
To accommodate this growth,
an eight tower Magnum 45 press
was installed, the first of its kind in
the world.
Pressure to grow
The Headline Daily continued to
grow and there was pressure to
“
They just
saturate the
market and
that’s what
the advertisers
love.”
increase paginations to
accommodate the growing
advertising volume which was
filling up to 85% of the paper.
As a result, an additional
Uniliner tower was ordered.
Even so, by September 2010
capacity was again being
stretched with circulation now at
700,000 and paginations reaching
144 pages on a regular basis – and
so now a new five tower Uniliner
80 (4 x 2) was ordered, capable of
producing up to 160 pages tabloid
running collect.
This press was commissioned in
June 2011 and today the Headline
Daily has reached 160 pages and
the circulation is between 900,000
and 1 million copies per day.
The combined Sing Tao News
Corporation output is 1.25 million
copies per night and their titles
now dominate the Hong Kong
newspaper market.
“The key is really how they
distribute the product,” said Peter.
“They just saturate the market and
that’s what the advertisers love.”
Even with all this pressure on
meeting production targets, the
team at Sing Tao still managed to
qualify for the prestigious IFRA ISO
award for standardised printing.
This award benchmarks all
production processes for
consistency and high quality from
prepress to mailroom.
Sing Tao are one of only five
newspaper printers in the world to
gain this award, a remarkable
achievement given the volumes
they handle every day.
Today, the Headline Daily has reached 160 pages and the
circulation is between 900,000 and 1 million copies per day.
12
SWUG July 2012
Top newspapers of 2012
BEST OVERALL
PRINT QUALITY
Highly Commended
Bunbury Mail RPP Mandurah
(manroland Uniset 75)
Runner Up
Newcastle Herald Fairfax Regional Printers
(manroland Uniset 70)
Winner – Brissett Shield
Bendigo Advertiser RPP Ballarat
(manroland Uniset 75)
BEST OVERALL
FOUR COLOUR
NEWSPAPER
Highly Commended
The Esperance Express RPP Mandurah
(manroland Uniset 75)
Runner Up
The Gisborne Herald Gisborne Herald
(Goss Community)
Winner – DIC Shield
Hawke’s Bay Today APN Print Hastings (NZ)
(Goss Community)
BEST COLDSET
COMMERCIAL
PUBLICATION
Highly Commended
Journey Horton Media (Qld)
(Goss Community)
Runner Up
Aviation News Horton Media (NZ)
(Goss Community)
Winner – Flint Group Shield
Hinterland Times Horton Media (Qld)
(Goss Community)
13
SWUG July 2012
Quality keeps on getting better
The 2012 SWUG newspaper awards were
In other attributes of interest, what is pleasing is that there are
very few ‘bunged in’ screens or muddy photos – both
conventional and stochastic – while at the same time, solids are
excellent. Also, there is a very low incidence of scumming or
tinting, as it should be.
judged this year by Gordon Cole, Wayne
Additional comments:
Judges comments
Johnstone and Peter Hook, formerly of Kodak
and a first-time judge for SWUG. Their
comments on this year’s entries were as
follows:
I
BEST OVERALL
PRINT QUALITY
DOUBLE WIDTH
Highly Commended
Australian Financial Review RPP Ormiston
(Goss Uniliner 80)
Runner Up
Australian Financial Review RPP Ormiston
(Goss Uniliner 80)
Winner – Norske Skog Shield
n 2012, 16 sites across Australasia submitted entries for this
year’s competition but there are only 42 entries versus 52 in
2011. The results suggest that you have been quite selective
this year when choosing entries to submit.
This year sees an expansion of the awards into a fourth
category, best overall double width print quality. There were only
a small number of entries (5) but hopefully this will grow over
time.
Category 3, best overall coldset commercial publication, boasts
the most entries (17), perhaps reflecting the growing importance
of this type of work in newspaper plants, but it is also a format that
demonstrates what print quality can be achieved from newspaper
presses, including long-serving Goss Communities.
The other two categories had 10 entries each.
In 2008, we set a challenge for all SWUG members to better a
score of 90%. Up to that date, the best ever score was 87.6%. In
2009, the target of 90% was indeed met by one entry, but this year
90% is no longer exceptional and scores above 85% common. To
illustrate, the winning entry in all four categories this year
equalled or bettered 90%, and the overall highest score was 95%.
This is heart warming for your judges as it suggests you have
noted our past comments and produced better quality overall
than ever before. On the other hand, it made the job of separating
the many fine entries a very tough task indeed. In fact the judging
took around 10 hours to complete.
There is now no category that is significantly weaker than any
other.
In 2011, the judging panel set up a spreadsheet to better
analyse the print properties that most affected the outcome, both
good and bad. To that end, the influential properties in 2012 can
be seen in the following charts.
You can see the improvement from 2011 to 2012 so that, even
with the lower scoring properties, very satisfactory outcomes
have been achieved on average.
In the high scoring print properties, your entries have gone
from strength to strength.
Print through: This has been mentioned before and is still quite
noticeable. It is the one thing that noticeably detracts from the
presentation of all entries.
Colour of newsprint: Greyish versus traditional creamy type.
There is only a low incidence of mixed use of these two stocks in
the same book but it’s still not a good look.
Plate edge marks: Particularly on covers. A fact of life, but
unsightly.
Ink rub off on hands: A great improvement over last year.
Congratulations to the winners, and a big well done to all who
submitted entries for the high quality they achieved – a great
result.
The challenge now is to maintain this quality through into
2013 and improve wherever you can.
Areas of Relative Weakness – average scores
% of Points Available
1. Marking from trolleys,
nips, folding rollers
2. Pins, position, tears
3. Set Off
2011
2012
65%
68%
78%
82%
83%
85%
Areas of Relative Strength – average scores
% of Points Available
1. Creasing
2. Solids
3. Registration
2011
68%
82%
76%
2012
90%
90%
88%
Other Attributes of Interest – average scores
% of Points Available
1. Scumming/tinting
2. Visual density on a page
3. Half tones
4. Blanket/print defects
5. Density, page to page
2011
78%
78%
76%
80%
77%
2012
86%
86%
86%
86%
85%
The New Zealand Herald APN Print Ellerslie (NZ)
(Goss HT70)
Clockwise from top left: The victorious team from RPP Ballarat celebrate winning the Brissett Shield, (l-r) Michelle
Robertson, Dale Thomas, Shayne West and Mark Collins: Russell Wieck (right) from APN Print Ellerslie collects the
inaugural Norske Skog Shield from Tania Gordon of Norske Skog (middle) and Bob Lockley, SWUG president (left):
Russell Johnston from the APN Print Hastings site receives the DIC Shield from Meredith Darke of DIC Australia
(right) and Bob Lockley: Scott Eldridge and David Newson from Horton Media (Qld) make it a clean sweep for
Horton Media in the Best Coldset Commercial Print category, receiving the Flint Ink Shield from Bob Lockley and
Mark Gooding of Flint Group (right).
14
SWUG July 2012
SWUG sees double
This year’s host site at the Ormiston Print Centre
opened its doors to the SWUG delegates and put on a
fantastic event, offering unprecedented access to this
unique double width press in full flow. It was a night
for newspaper printers and suppliers alike to savour.
Main pic: SWUG delegates throng the press control room at
Ormiston.
Left: The reel store at Ormiston is where the previous Goss
Community press was installed. The site uses a variety of
different stocks, taking advantage of the variable web width
capability of the Goss Uniliner press. Reel widths range from
405mm to 1,620mm in 45/52/60 and 70gsm.
Middle: The star attraction in the new press hall is the Goss
Uniliner 80 double width shaftless press comprising four towers
capable of printing 128 pages of back-to-back colour at up to
80,000 copies per hour.
Below: The Uniliner press features an unusual configuration in
that the towers are side-by-side rather than inline with the
Megtec reelstands at right angles to the pressline. Reels are
delivered via a purpose-built rail track system (bottom left).
From the top: the four plate across
double-width press features
Baldwin Impact Global blanket
washers and Constant C spray bar
dampening; an inline slitter is
located at the top of the tower for
splitting the web; turner bars at
the top of the press turn the web
inline with the folder; the press
has automatic colour monitoring
and cut-off controls from QI Press
Controls; ink is supplied
constantly from five 7,000
kilogram ink tanks.
15
SWUG July 2012
Left and below:The publishing room at Ormiston features
one of the most modern Ferag systems in the country
including inserters, drum winding and unwinding
stations, inline StreamStitch stitch and trim (the first of
its kind for newspapers) and stackers.
Right: In prepress, two Kodak Trendsetter News CTP
units combined with Nela automated plate bending are
capable of pumping out up to 200 plates per hour.
1985
The Gold Coast Bulletin, Queensland
1986
The Gold Coast Bulletin, Queensland
1987
Messenger Press, South Australia
1988
Manly Daily, New South Wales
1989
Leader Newspapers, Victoria
1990
Rural Press North Richmond, New South Wales
1991
Canweb, ACT
1992
SWUG
SITES
1985 - 2012
The roll call of sites for
the SWUG conference
since 1985.
AGFA GRAPHICS
Prepare for
Take-Off.
Mackay Mercury, Queensland
1993
Launceston Examiner, Tasmania
1994
Rural Press North Richmond, New South Wales
1995
Queensland Times, Ipswich, Queensland
1996
Torch Newspapers, Bankstown, New South Wales
1997
The Gold Coast Bulletin, Queensland
1998/99
Taking your business further is like flying an airplane.
Agfa Graphics’s Newspaper Solutions will get you to cruising speed in
no time, with a cost-effective, efficient prepress operation. Our service
teams are always at hand to make sure you stay ahead of schedule.
Bendigo Advertiser, Victoria
2000
Launceston Examiner, Tasmania
2001
Fairfax Regional Printers, Newcastle, New South Wales
2002
Sunshine Coast Daily, Maroochydore, Queensland
2003
Daily Advertiser, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales
2004
We know the flight plan: cruise at higher levels of quality and
productivity and get more mileage out of your investment. We’ll help
you get there with a full set of dedicated workflow solutions, unique
screening technology and separation software to reduce ink usage,
all part of the :Arkitex family.
We have a fine selection of CtP solutions on board: the new
:Advantage N, or the trusted :Polaris X, with a range of high-quality
digital plates. Alternatively, sample our ecology-friendly
chemistry-free violet plates.
The Gold Coast Bulletin, Queensland
2005
Agfa Graphics, the standard in newspaper prepress production.
The Ballarat Courier, Victoria
2006
Murray Valley Standard, Murray Bridge, South Australia
2007
Sunshine Coast Daily, Yandina, Queensland
www.agfa.com/graphics
2009
Norske Skog mill/Border Mail, Albury, New South Wales
2010
Northern Daily Leader, Tamworth, New South Wales
2011
Mercury, Hobart, Tasmania
2012
Ormiston Print Centre, Queensland
Agfa Graphics
Australia & New Zealand
Tel: 1300 364 396 (Aust)
Tel: 0800 116 253 (NZ)
16
SWUG July 2012
Getting the good oil on consumables
The parts and consumables used on a press might seem
James Hunter from Chiorino
Australia (left) presented a new
magnetic web-up kite (below)
that uses two magnetic sheets to
hold the paper, eliminating the
need for fibre glass tape or splice
tape. The use of magnets instead
of tape has the potential to
eradicate fibre glass
contamination and the build-up of
bonding residue on rollers.
insignificant in terms of the overall operation but they can
make a significant difference to costs and productivity.
That was the message at SWUG from several consumable
suppliers who outlined the latest developments in
lubricants, belts and wash solutions.
Consumables
T
he old advertising slogan ‘Oils
ain’t oils’ was given new
meaning in Sean Thiele’s
presentation on lubrication and,
certainly, anybody who previously
thought that all oils are the same will
have quickly realised the folly of
treating them as such.
Sean, who represents lubrication
specialists Indisol, focused on the
importance of using the right lubricant
with your machinery and the necessity
of keeping it clean.
As most people know, mineral oil is
a substance made up of plant and
animal matter that was deposited
millions of years ago.
Most people, too, probably think of
crude oil as black, sticky stuff that
gushes out of the ground but, in fact,
depending on where it comes from, it
can have very different colours and
consistency.
Only about 10% of a barrel of crude
oil is used for industrial purposes; the
rest is mainly used for gasoline, diesel,
kerosene or heating fuel.
Most oil that comes from one
refinery or another is very similar in
terms of quality, said Sean, but there
are nevertheless many different types
of oil which vary according to their
viscosity and components.
Which one you use is very important
to get right.
Choose your oil wisely
The best way to work out the right oil
to use, said Sean, is to refer back to the
manufacturer’s manual because that
will specify what you should be using
for any piece of equipment.
Characteristics that should be
considered in choosing an oil include
the viscosity or thickness of the oil, the
load it must bear, the temperature of
the equipment (the hotter the oil
becomes, the thinner it gets), the shear
rates or breakdown point of the oil,
and any shock/vibration in the
equipment.
In terms of industrial oils, there are
three main types: CLP gear oils, HVLP
hydraulic oils, and CGLP chain and
slideway oils.
Each oil is designed with very
specific purposes in mind and is not
interchangeable.
Apart from the type of oil used, the
other aspect to consider is relubrication and how the oil is maintained and looked after.
Despite what many people might
think, mineral oil doesn’t deteriorate
over time but it does become
contaminated which will reduce its
effectiveness.
However, if the oil is cared for
correctly then the re-lubrication times
can be extended significantly. For
instance, according to Sean, some
Fairfax print sites have been using the
same oil for between 7-10 years due to
proper management.
And just as it can be risky to use too
little oil, too much lubrication can also
cause problems, increasing the
temperature of the oil and risking
failure.
“If you over-lubricate a bearing and
put in more than 40-50% of the
volume, you induce heat and reduce
the life of the bearing,” said Sean.
In the same way that ‘oils ain’t oils’ it
is equally true, according to Sean, that
‘grease ain’t grease’.
While some users might regard oil
and grease as interchangeable, in
reality they serve very different
purposes.
While the preference is always to use
oil where possible, grease is used in
those areas where oil cannot be held
because it would just flow away.
Grease is just a carrier for oil and is
made up of 75-90% oil with the
addition of thickener, either soap or
non-soap (5-15% - the more thickener,
the lower the grade of the oil) and
additives (2-15%) such as anticorrosive agents.
Keeping it clean
While it is vital is use the right oil, how
it is managed in use is equally
important, explained Sean. To
optimise their use of lubricants, users
need to have in place an oil cleanliness
program (OCP) and introduce oil
conditioning monitoring (OCM).
When oil is being used in machinery,
it can quickly become contaminated,
such as through air-borne dust
particles or wear and tear from the
machinery.
Cleaning the oil, such as via a
filtration system, will increase its life
significantly, thereby extending the life
of the equipment, increasing its
productivity and reducing downtime.
In addition to monitoring the
cleanliness of the oil, OCM is also a
good indicator of potential mechanical
problems with equipment before they
can become catastrophic.
For instance, Sean highlighted an
example of a two-year old machine on
which oil testing revealed a significant
increase in contaminants, both in
number and particle size, which was an
indication of imminent gear failure.
The oil monitoring didn’t save the
gear, which was on the point of failure,
but it did avoid a costly breakdown
during production.
Testing an oil sample typically costs
about $40 which is a fraction of the
cost of repairing a broken gearbox.
Numbers tell the story
There are ISO standards that apply to
oil contamination that use different
numerical codes to describe the
amount of contamination.
The numbers in the code refer to
different particle sizes – 4, 6 and 14
microns, typically the particle sizes
that cause the most wear – with each
number referring to the number of
such particles in the oil.
Moreover, each increase in the
number represents a doubling of the
number of particles.
For example, a typical 100ml oil
sample classified under the ISO
standard as 19/17/14 contains:
• >4 micron – 450,000 particles
• >6 micron – 120,000 particles
• >14 micron – 14,000 particles
Sean showed ‘before and after’ slides
that demonstrated the effect of
cleaning oil and thereby reducing the
ISO reading from a figure of 24/22/19
to 16/14/11, which is the level of
cleanliness specified by some press
manufacturers.
According to Sean, cleaning your oil
to reduce contaminants, for instance
from ISO 21/18 (for 6 and 14 micron
particles) to ISO 15/12, will extend
component life by a factor of five.
Similarly, installing air filters on
equipment, particularly in humid
regions such as Queensland, can
significantly extend component life by
reducing contaminants down to 2
microns and eliminating moisture.
For instance, reducing average fluid
moisture levels in oil from 2,500ppm
to 156ppm, can likewise extend
component life by a factor of five.
Control your oil
In summary, it is clear, said Sean, that
while users cannot control how their
oil is manufactured, they can control
how it is stored and used.
“If you’re going to take time to
extend the life of your equipment and
reduce the necessity to invest in
equipment – not so much buying new
presses as buying new parts – look at
the lubrication program.
“It’s not about the failure of oil
companies, it’s really about cleanliness
and monitoring the equipment in a
responsible manner to identify what’s
happening to the equipment through
the oil,” he concluded.
Think before you lubricate
“What I’m trying to get across is the message ‘Think about what you’re doing
before you do it’. Don’t suffer the consequences after the fact,” said Sean Thiele.
Oils ain’t Oils
• Base oils are very specific and designed to do a particular job
• Viscosity does the bulk of the work
• Additives only enhance the performance of oils
Grease ain’t Grease
• Solid to semi-solid fluid
• Combines dispersion thickening agents and oils
• Base oil viscosity is critical
• Understand when you cross mix – there are consequences!
If in doubt, ask an expert or read the OEM manual.
Better belts for all
Italian supplier Chiorino is well known
for the range of belts and tapes it
manufactures for the printing industry.
James Hunter of Chiorino Australia
returned to SWUG to give an update
on the latest developments in web-up
belts and tapes, magnetic web-up kites
and quarter fold belts and tapes.
In terms of web-up belts, the new TE 10/20 fast-join belt (seen in action at
the Ormiston site) has been designed
specifically for web-up applications on
Goss and KBA reel stands.
According to James, this particular
belt is stronger and more durable than
other belts currently in use.
It is also quick to install and easy to
join, thereby reducing installation and
downtime costs.
A new product being manufactured
by Chiorino South Africa is a magnetic
web-up kite that is currently available
for manroland presses that use chain
and can also be adapted for KBA and
Goss presses that use belts and tapes.
The new system uses two magnetic
sheets to hold the paper, thereby eliminating the need for fibre glass tape or
splice tape.
The elimination of fibre glass tape in
particular has the potential to eradicate
fibre glass contamination and the
build-up of bonding residue on rollers.
As demonstrated at SWUG, the
magnetic sheets create an extremely
tight grip on the paper.
Moving onto the folder, James
highlighted the PT series belts that are
being used in a variety of applications
for manroland, KBA and Goss
newspaper folders.
These belts are made from hidensity elastomer polyurethane and
use traditional polyamide and
polyester fabric as the base of the belt.
According to James, in many
applications traditional belts suffer
from premature deterioration due to
the ink and fount solutions, as well as
premature elongation, transfer of wet
ink and ink build-up.
The PT series belts are designed to
be more durable and, if applied
correctly, can reduce paper spoils in
many applications where wet ink is in
contact with the belts and tapes.
17
SWUG July 2012
Washing with water
Steve Tangee from local consumable
supplier, DS Chemport, returned to
SWUG with another entertaining
presentation that continued his
demonstration of the chemistry
involved in some of today’s pressroom
consumables.
His focus this year was on wash
solutions for cleaning blankets and
rollers, and whether it is possible to use
a solvent-free wash solution to
effectively clean ink residue.
As Steve demonstrated, typically to
dissolve or wash up an ink, a wash is
used that is held together by the same
forces that hold together the ink.
So, for instance, a hydrocarbonbased solvent will typically be used to
clean a hydrocarbon-based ink while
water is used to clean a water-based
ink.
However, as most people are aware,
there are problems associated with
using hydrocarbon-based solvents in
the workplace, such as the fumes they
give off and their comparatively low
flashpoint, the temperature at which
the vapours will ignite.
In contrast, water-based washes are
much safer because water will not
ignite and is not combustible.
Meeting the challenge
The challenge then, as Steve outlined,
is to develop a hybrid wash which is
safe to use but which can dissolve more
than one substance, including
materials that are incompatible.
Recently, DS Chemport has been
trialling a water-based, solvent-free
wash developed in Germany which
promises to deliver a number of
benefits.
Being a water surfactant-based
product, it contains no hazardous
ingredients, no hydrocarbons or
VOCs, no vegetable oil or derivatives
and it does not have a flash point.
It is also derived from a renewal
source – water – rather than a finite
hydrocarbon-based resource.
Being solvent-free, there are fewer
restrictions imposed on its packaging,
transportation and storage, and it is
easier to recycle or dispose of.
Used in automatic blanket washing
systems, there is less waste wash and
water to recycle and dispose of, and the
wash-water mix doesn’t require
separating prior to filtration.
As a result, the automatic wash cycle
can be reduced by more than 30%.
On the press, the wash is designed to
cause minimal blanket swell with a fast
evaporation rate and, because there is
not residual hydrocarbon-based wash
remaining on the blanket, there is less
toning and paper waste at start-ups.
The wash is healthier to use in the
workplace with no odour, less skin
irritation, no solvent flash fire beneath
UV lamps, and no need for critical
heatset oven LEL testing.
The wash is suitable for both UV
and conventional inks, and according
to Steve, FOGRA testing of the wash
has been completed and OEM
approvals are pending.
Describing how the wash works,
Steve referred back to last year’s
presentation when he described the
Washing with water: Steve Tangee of DS Chemport returned to SWUG to demonstrate some of the
chemistry behind a new water-based wash product that promises to eliminate problems traditionally
associated with solvent-based solutions.
process of surfactant micelle formation
when ink becomes emulsified in
solution.
While this is a bad result for fount
solutions, it is ideal for washing ink off
blankets and rollers.
The acid test
But does the wash actually work?
Trials of the wash, mainly on
blankets, have been taking place in
Europe and locally at APN Print,
Amcor, Rural Press in Ballarat and
Newsprinters in Shepparton. It is also
currently being used in the UK as a
parts wash and for floors and side
frames.
According to Steve, field trials have
shown that the wash is a good blanket
wash and that its viscosity has been
shown to assist in auto wash
applications, particularly clinging to
the brush.
However, because it is water-based,
overspray of the wash could cause web
breaks so, to avoid this problem, it is
necessary to disconnect the water and
reduce the wash by 30% for auto brush
blanket washes.
While there have been positive trials
in the non-heatset market, further
development is required for the wash
to be effective with heavier heatset and
sheetfed inks.
However, as Steve pointed out,
projects such as eliminating alcohol
from heatset pressrooms took many
years but were eventually achieved
with commitment.
“So it is possible to achieve a similar
outcome with washes as well,” said
Steve. “Fujifilm’s development work
and negotiations with press manufacturers for solvent-free wash
continues.”
Making the world a brighter place...
Total Ink Solutions
For more information, contact us on
Telephone: +61 2 9752 1200
Website: www.dic.com.au
Email: webinfo@dic.com.au
18
SWUG July 2012
New laws for workplace safety
OH&S
So, for instance, if an employee goes
to another site to install equipment,
the health and safety responsibilities
are not transferred to someone else at
that site. Office holders have a duty to
consult, co-operate and co-ordinate
activities with other duty holders.
“This is particularly important when
entering into contracting arrangements,” said Penny.
“You should be communicating
your safety requirements, reviewing
the jobs undertaken and discussing any
safety issues with contractors.”
New health and safety
legislation that is being
rolled out across the
country was addressed by
Penny Karvouniaris
(pictured), an employment
Try to be reasonable
and industrial relations
lawyer who advises clients
on their work health and
safety obligations.
W
hile it is often the more
extreme incidents that make
the news and grab the
attention, OH&S is an issue that
affects all workplaces.
The background to the new OH&S
legislation is that, in 2008-2009, there
were 128,735 workers compensation
claims for serious work related injuries
or illness, which works out at 13 claims
per 1,000 employees.
After from the negative impact on
individual workers who may suffer
illness and injury, poor workplace
safety also results in lost time,
increased management time and costs,
and higher workers compensation
expenses.
That’s why managing health and
safety should be a priority for all
workplaces, and not just because the
law demands it.
Living in perfect harmony
According to Penny, the current
buzzword in occupational health and
safety is ‘harmonisation’ which refers
to the process of introducing
consistent legislation across all states
and territories.
In 2008, all the states and territories
agreed to work together to develop
consistent health and safety laws
across the country.
The new Work Health & Safety Act
was endorsed in 2009 with the
expectation that the states would
introduce mirror legislation.
To date that hasn’t happened. The
Commonwealth, NSW, Queensland,
ACT and NT governments introduced
harmonised legislation from 1 January
this year but the other states are yet to
make any changes.
“
It is a very
tall order to be
able to predict
and factor in
human error but
that is what the
regulator
expects.”
The benefits of having consistent
health and safety legislation across the
nation are that it leads to greater clarity
and simplicity, reduces costs for
businesses in only having one set of
laws with which to comply, and
promotes greater certainty and
understanding of what the law
requires.
Apart from the nationally-consistent
application of the legislation, the new
laws also contain some important
changes.
For instance, the primary duty of
‘persons conducting a business or
undertaking’ (PCBU) is to ensure
health and safety in the workplace, and
this duty extends not just to employees
but also contractors, visitors,
volunteers, clients and others who
could be affected at the site.
In addition, the definition of
‘workplace’ is not confined to the
principal site/main place of business but
also includes any place where a worker
goes, or is likely to go, while at work.
What it might cost you…
Three categories of penalties, fines and imprisonment now
apply to breaches of the work health and safety duties:
Category 1 reckless conduct: for reckless conduct that exposes an
individual to a risk of death or serious injury or illness and is engaged in
without reasonable excuse.
• Corporations: $3 million
• Individuals as a PCBU or officers of a PCBU: $600,000/five years jail
• Other Individuals: $300,000/five years jail
Category 2 high risk breach: failure to comply with a health and safety
duty and exposing an individual to a risk of death or serious injury or
illness.
• Corporations: $1.5 million
• Individuals as a PCBU or officers of a PCBU: $300,000
• Other Individuals : $150,000
Category 3 duty breach: failure to comply with a health and safety duty.
• Corporations: $500,000
• Individuals as a PCBU or officers of a PCBU: $100,000
• Other Individuals: $50,000
A key phrase in the new legislation is
that the duty holder must eliminate
risks to health and safety so far as is
‘reasonably practicable’.
That means doing what is possible
to ensure the health and safety of
workers so as to meet a standard of
behaviour as might be expected of a
‘reasonable’ person in that position.
If that sounds a little vague, the
legislation does give some guidance as
to what might constitute ‘reasonably
practicable’.
For instance, what is the likelihood
of a hazard or risk? If harm is more
likely, there is an expectation then that
more will be done to eliminate or
minimise the risk.
Secondly, what is the degree of
possible harm? It is reasonable to
expect that somebody will do more to
eliminate or minimise the risk of death
or serious injury than, say, the risk of a
minor injury.
Thirdly, what is your ‘state of
knowledge’? What should you
reasonably know about how to
eliminate or minimise a hazard or risk?
This knowledge can be gained in
several ways, such as consulting with
workers and people in the industry,
undertaking on-site risk assessments
(although they are not mandatory
except for certain activities such as
diving), analysing previous incidents,
and consulting relevant industry codes
of practice.
It is also considered ‘reasonably
practicable’ for you to understand the
risks or hazards associated with the
potential failure of equipment or safety
measures, as well as human error or
misuse.
“You should be taking all of these
things into account in working out
what is reasonably practicable, which is
really difficult because, obviously,
people are quite spontaneous and do
unpredictable things,” said Penny.
“It is a very tall order to be able to
predict and factor in human error but
that is what the regulator expects.”
The next factor in assessing what is
‘reasonably practicable’ is the availability and suitability of ways to
eliminate or minimise risks.
This encompasses things such as
safety equipment, guards etc as well as
work procedures such as speed limits.
The final factor is cost, bearing in
mind that safety always ranks ahead of
cost and that the cost is only taken into
account after considering the extent of
the risk and the available means of
eliminating it.
For instance, the more likely the
hazard or risk, and the greater the harm
that might result from it, the less
weight will be given to cost of
eliminating or minimising it.
At the same time, the capacity to pay
in this instance is not relevant; your
workers should not have a lower level
of protection simply because your
financial position is weaker than, say, a
large multinational corporation – that
reasoning will not be accepted by the
regulator.
A practical example of how the notion of ‘reasonably practicable’ might
apply was presented by Penny in relation to the risks associated with
pedestrians in forklift operating areas.
This particular incident involved a loading dock coordinator at a print
facility. The employee was walking back to her office. She had paperwork in
her hands and appeared to be looking down as she walked, reading. The
forklift was reversing back towards her – and hit the employee. She hit the
ground on impact, hitting her head. She sustained an injury to her neck, a
fracture to her pelvis and an injury to her knee.
The company had control measures in place, namely the forklift had a
reversing alarm on it and there was a flashing light.
The company had standard operating procedures in place for Forklift
Traffic Management and for Forklift Safe Operation which required forklift
drivers to make sure the area is clear of pedestrian traffic when performing
any lift. It also indicated that operators could use portable safety barriers to
restrict pedestrian access if required.
WorkSafe prosecuted the company on the basis that it had not done
everything that is reasonably practicable. In particular, at the time of the
incident, it did not segregate plant and pedestrians by having permanent
pedestrian and plant exclusion zones or by providing designating walkways.
Since then, company has taken remedial actions and reviewed the traffic
management plan.
In particular, specific forklift zones have been created with safety barriers
and witches hats where no pedestrian access is permitted unless authorised.
All pedestrians are required to stay within designated walkways and driver
induction training has been updated to cover this.
A duty to be diligent
Another important change introduced
by harmonisation process is the duty
imposed on officers to exercise
ongoing due diligence to ensure
compliance with the Act.
This is a proactive duty which
means that officers have an ongoing
duty to gain an understanding of the
hazards and risks, and ensure that the
business has and uses appropriate
resources and processes to minimise or
eliminate risk.
So who is an ‘officer’? This is defined
as directors, the company secretary,
any person involved in making
decisions that affect the whole or a
substantial part of the business, and
any person who has capacity to affect
significantly the company’s financial
standing – so it is a fairly broad
definition.
There are also new penalties
associated with the legislation with the
maximum penalties set according to
the category of offence committed and
the type of duty holder (i.e. an
individual, officer or body corporate).
The amount of the maximum
penalties for each type of duty holder
has been increased significantly in the
new legislation – see box.
What you can do
In conclusion, Penny outlined a
number of practical tips for complying
with the new legislation. These
include:
• Having up-to-date health and safety
policies and procedures
• Allocating responsibilities for health
and safety issues
• Establishing safety committees that
are able to report upwards to assist
officers in meeting their obligations
• Increasing staff awareness through
training and education
• Having hazard identification and risk
assessment processes in place
• Conducting safety audits and
updating risk assessments
• Establishing contractor management
procedures
• Implementing incident reporting and
review processes
• Keeping open channels for communication of health and safety
concerns.
19
SWUG July 2012
Looking at safety with fresh eyes
Safety audits
the company’s Auburn plant
truck entries and exits, not counting
small trucks and couriers
These movements are also often in
areas where the entry and exit is quite
narrow.
In addition, there is also a
considerable amount of pedestrian
traffic between different areas of the
site with people crossing over traffic
areas between the warehouses and
factories.
As a result, traffic movements have
been identified as a potential hazard
and one that needs to be managed.
Being a chemical manufacturing
site, the storage of hazardous materials
is another major concern and one that
presents its own risks which need to be
managed.
and the benefits of
No secrets to safety
An interesting case study on
site health and safety was
presented by Ian Johns
(pictured) from ink
manufacturer, DIC, who
outlined some of the OH&S
initiatives implemented at
conducting an external
audit into safety.
T
he key message of Ian’s presentation was that no matter
how safety-aware you might be,
it is always possible to improve your
processes.
Originally established in the 1950s,
DIC’s Auburn site in Sydney is a very
busy manufacturing plant which
experiences a considerable amount of
vehicle traffic including tankers
arriving and leaving for bulk deliveries
as well as numerous forklift movements each day.
In fact, according to Ian, on average
there are over 180 forklift movements
daily on the site and more than 20
“
Don’t worry
about what you
might find.
Just worry
about what
remains
unidentified.”
Magnum
HPS
s High Performance Single
Width One-Around
s Up to 70,000 cph, wide
range of applications
LOCAL CONTACT: Goss International, Unit 16,
35 Dunlop Road, Mulgrave, Victoria 3170, Australia
+03.9560.1666
www.gossinternational.com
Current health and safety measures on
the site include a dedicated intranet
site to provide all employees with upto-date safety information, induction
programs for new employees and
contractors, a health and safety
committee, risk assessments, hazard
reports and near-miss report cards as
well as OH&S noticeboards on all
sites.
“It’s all about sharing as much information as we’ve got,” said Ian. “There
is no such thing as a secret when it
comes to workplace health and safety.”
Drawing on ideas from previous
SWUG conferences, the company
recently decided to engage an external
auditor to come in and inspect the site
in order to see, from a safety perspective, what was working well and
what needed to be improved.
The external auditor was a business
partner with 40 years industry
experience who came on site for two
days and worked with the HR and
operations managers.
The audit process covered site
inspections, a review of current
documentation, compliance with
legislation as well as questions and
interviews with employees.
There were no restrictions on access
so nothing could be hidden, said Ian.
The audit showed that while the
company was compliant with current
legislation, there were a number of
areas that could indeed be improved.
“We discovered that we met our
legal requirements but we could do
better,” said Ian. “It’s more about
making sure we do everything
humanly possible to keep people safe.”
As a result, some changes have been
implemented at the site from an
OH&S perspective.
Daily safety huddles
Following the audit, daily toolbox
meetings are now being held which
incorporate a safety topic.
Previously meetings were weekly
and focused more on production
issues, but now they have been
broadened to include safety and made
shorter – ‘safety huddles’ as Ian called
them.
Led by the supervisor, staff discuss
safety areas that can be improved such
as slip hazards and the timing of raw
material movements.
A risk assessment of traffic
movements on the site was carried out
and a traffic management plan written
that will be implemented to ensure all
job functions associated with on-site
traffic are conducted in a safe manner.
Other outcomes include pictures of
local first-aiders and fire wardens being
put up around the sites, evacuation
plans and emergency exits being
clearly displayed, electrical cabinets to
remain locked at all times, and all
ladders on the site to be secured.
“We certainly learnt a lot,” said Ian.
“We found we weren’t as good as we
thought we were.”
In summary, Ian said that new
processes, people and equipment
always lead to new risks, so it pays to
engage a third party to bring a fresh
pair of eyes to the situation.
“Don’t worry about what you might
find,” he said, “just worry about what
remains unidentified.”
20
SWUG July 2012
Have your say...
Engineers Q&A
Double width, double
circumference (dwdc)
T
he engineers session for double
width/double circumference
press users saw a number of
new issues raised this year on topics
ranging from brake wear to chemicalfree plates.
Update from 2011
Metal backed blankets: There was
further discussion this year on the use
of metal-backed blankets and the
problems of running them.
Ormiston, the Border Mail and
Yandina sites gave an update on
progress with these issues.
Frank O’Grady from the Border Mail
at Albury said the problem seems to
have stabilised and, having worked
with the blanket manufacturer, he has
not had too much trouble.
The site is currently using Day
blankets on most towers and trialling
Conti on one tower.
Ray Zeric at Ormiston reported they
are still having problems running half
webs for long runs and that it takes a
long time to achieve registration.
Peter Broadfoot from APN Yandina
The afternoon of the engineers sessions is an opportunity
for SWUG delegates to ask questions, highlight production
problems and seek solutions. This year, the topics covered
a variety of performance issues with a particular focus on
safe lifting procedures.
said that some of their blankets have
been on for 12 months and are still
going well after reaching 50 million
impressions.
Speaking from a manufacturer’s
perspective, Eddie Holmes at Flint
Group said continuing R&D was being
done to improve the blankets, particularly in terms of the compound
between compressible layers.
Stephan Peters from Conti said the
company was experimenting with
different types of compressible layers
and hadn’t experienced any delamination problems.
Ian Best from Agfa said similar
compression layer issues had been
seen with heatset commercial presses.
Frank O’Grady advised not allowing
blankets to heat up during long runs on
half webs by only running the blanket
on the print side.
Eddie Holmes confirmed that temperature has a critical effect on the
blankets and that temperatures from
45º to 50º will cook the blanket.
All manufacturers are trying to make
them more effective and he advised
that increasing water on fractional
webs to keep them lubricated will
assist a lot.
Plate wear: There was previously an
issue with excessive plate wear on long
runs with certain thermal plates.
Anthony Payne reported that some
sites were trying to do different things
this year and were experiencing plate
wear.
Rob Mollee from Kodak said the
company had made some adjustments
to exposure settings and that it had
discovered some batch to batch
variation in manufacturing. New
formulations have overcome this
problem.
Mark Collins from Ballarat said the
site had experienced batch to batch
variation, getting one month of good
runs followed by average runs the next
month, although this has not been
seen for a while.
Jon Clarke at Canberra said the site
had seen a lot of problems with plates
last year which resulted in it removing
the Kodak plate.
Since then, it has put them back on
with no further problems in coldset.
Similarly, Stuart Holder from
Mandurah has had issues with plate
wear in the past which was thought to
be a problem with the plates. However,
after changing the fountain solution,
the problem went away and the site
now uses Böttcher solution on both
heatset and coldset units.
Ian Best from Agfa reported that a
forum was held at News Ltd in
Chullora to address intermittent plate
wear issues.
Test strips had shown that fount
contamination was the cause and,
since then, run lengths have gone back
to 400,000 impressions.
Mark Grima from Fairfax Printers at
Chullora reported that no further
problems had been reported since
switching to reverse osmosis water. He
believes that News are likewise now
using RO water.
Corrosion: Anthony Payne highlighted
the issue of accelerated corrosion on a
number of presses including manroland
and Goss (unsure about KBA).
Jason Ryder at Ormiston said the
site was currently managing the
problem between blanket changes.
Every time a blanket is removed, it is
shown that moisture has entered.
Currently using a light-grade oil to
lubricate between the cylinder and the
press but it is an on-going management
issue.
Michael Aubrey at Newcastle likewise reported a problem with blanket
cylinders and is about to trial the use of
packed blankets to see if it has an
effect. Currently using no-pack
blankets.
Kersten Frotscher from manroland
highlighted the effect on different
presses manufactured at the same time
from similar materials.
In India, a press on which the
blankets are changed at regular
intervals regardless of the number of
impressions has experienced no
problems.
In Italy, by comparison, the same
press manufactured at the same time is
now contaminated with rust, possibly
due to the chemicals used causing a
reaction.
Currently the company is trying to
determine the reaction between the
different chemicals used together on
the one press and the effect on
corrosion.
Anthony Payne said the problem is
21
SWUG July 2012
frustrating from a user’s perspective.
At Newcastle, the original four towers
have corrosion. Two additional towers
also have it despite following all
recommended procedures and using
only approved products.
It is also apparently an issue at The
Age plant at Tullamarine as well as at
Ormiston.
Peter Surman from the Border Mail
said the Goss press there had experienced some bad corrosion that was
traced to the compound on the
packing of a particular blanket. It
disappeared overnight after changing
the blanket and has not been seen
since.
It was suggested that the problem
might have something to do with
presses being in coastal locations.
Ballarat, for instance, doesn’t have it
and neither does North Richmond.
Kersten Frotscher confirmed that
the Italian press is located on the coast
whereas the Indian press is in
Bangalore, away from the coast.
Is the solution then to move all the
press sites further inland?
Worn bearings: This seems to be an
issue that is primarily affecting Goss
presses.
It was first reported last year on the
Uniliner press at Christchurch where,
according to Jason Ryder from
Ormiston, worn cylinder bearings
brought the press to a standstill.
It was discovered that 19 bearings
had different forms of wear.
On the Ormiston press, the
situation is nowhere near as bad but
there are still some signs of wear. Goss
advises that they need to use one
grease only on all three sites.
Currently, they are vibration testing
every three months. The last one
performed at Ormiston was a good
result; five bearings were changed but
were at normal levels.
They will continue to monitor the
situation for the next three years to see
how it goes.
This is an issue that can be controlled effectively by lubrication and by
using the right type of lubricant.
Plate edge marking: A long-term
issue. Rob Mollee from Kodak
reported that, from a manufacturing
standpoint, this has not changed; there
is not a lot that can be done in the
manufacturing cycle to solve it.
The problem is the same for all
manufacturers and can be seen across a
lot of print sites and titles.
The only real solution is to pay for a
plate that is manufactured and coated
to a specific size, or to use panorama
plates.
New issues for 2012
Hemant Kalita from Ormiston
highlighted an issue with former board
slitters not lasting very long with the
edges going blunt after 2-3 days.
They have tried solving it by moving
the slitter left to right but currently
going through six to seven slitters per
month. Was anyone else having the
same problem?
Peter Kirwan from Goss confirmed
he had seen the problem elsewhere but
not sure of the exact detail; he will get
back to Ormiston with latest information on resolving the problem.
Michael Lyons from Newcastle
reported on a problem with excessive
brake shear wear causing a lot of
stoppages.
The brake discs have been replaced
and come out looking glazed and
shiny. After being cleaned up, they are
good for a couple of months but then
the problem re-emerges. Any
solutions?
Apparently Ballarat experienced a
similar problem and replaced the disc
and plate shoes with parts from
Melbourne which generate less
residue. Likewise at Mandurah.
North Richmond is experiencing
similar problems on one reel stand.
Ballarat will supply details of their
solution.
Noel Brennan from Queensland
Newspapers asked about excessive
build-up on CIC satellite units.
Currently, they need to be cleaned
after 200,00 impressions, sometimes as
little as 100,000, and they are difficult
to clean.
Peter Tkachuk from Baldwin said
the installation of a web cleaning
system in Adelaide had fixed this
problem as it vacuums the web before
it enters the press and extends the
cleaning interval.
Mark Gooding from Flint Group
said it was an issue that had been
around for a long time with no
definitive answer.
The temperature of the first unit will
have a big effect while web cleaning
also works because it removes the
paper dust.
Michael Vankka from North
Richmond asked about striping/
ghosting on heatset work.
He has talked to Angus Scott at Ace
Rollers about adding an oscillating
roller to overcome it. Mandurah
currently don’t have this issue on their
heatset.
Neil Rose from Böttcher suggested
that striping might be due to calcium
build-up on the rollers.
Eddie Holmes at Flint said it is
common for sheetfed presses to have
oscillating rollers to overcome
ghosting and that it might be a good
idea to have two. Sheetfed presses have
four.
John Ostler from manroland said
that roller power can be an issue which
means that the press starts to run out
of ink at speed. An oscillating form
roller should help with this.
Ian Woods from Fairfax Printers at
continued next page
Check your power units
Following a number of incidents, print sites are urged to
check any power factor correction units they have
installed as failure to do so may have explosive
consequences.
A number of sites in recent years
have reported fires and explosive
combustion as a result of power
factor correction units overheating.
These units are often installed at
industrial plants as they have been
shown to reduce electricity
consumption significantly by
ensuring that only the required
amount of power is used.
While they do a good job, they
also need to be checked regularly
and, if necessary, replaced to
prevent potential problems.
According to Anthony Payne,
several local print sites have
experienced fires caused by faulty
power factor correction units.
“Traditionally they’ve been installed in electrical switch rooms so the
risk is that they can go up big time and take the switch room out with it,”
he said.
In one incident, a five-year old unit went up in flames and blew the
door off the unit.
At another site, when the manufacturers of the unit were contacted
regarding servicing, they advised turning it off immediately as it was well
past its use-by date.
“Just be aware that if you have got them, get them serviced, get them
checked. If they are around 10 years old, it’s probably about time to start
thinking about getting them replaced,” added Anthony.
The other point to remember is that if the equipment on-site is being
upgraded then this may increase the load on the correction units, so
make sure they can cope with the extra load.
This may not be a job for the plant electrician but there are specialist
electricians who will come in and monitor the units to ensure they are
working properly.
Fit for future markets.
Stand out from the competition and gain access to new markets.
The digital printing market is developing at a rapid pace and is opening up new
vistas. With the finishing systems for offset and digital printing from Muller
Martini you can stand out in your market and be provided with new business
models. Our hybrid systems prepare you for tomorrow’s markets and impress
your current clients with their efficiency and flexibility.
Muller Martini – your strong partner.
Muller Martini Australia Pty Limited
Sydney +61 (0)2 8707 7300, Melbourne +61 412 749 761, Auckland +64 (0)21 790 600
Fax +61 (0)2 9773 1245, www.mullermartini.com/au, info@au.mullermartini.com
Ins_FutureMarkets_SWUG_HS.indd 1
31.05.12 KW 22 08:43
22
continued from previous page
Chullora wanted to know if anybody
locally is manufacturing brush rollers
for processors as the manufacturer’s
parts are expensive.
Angus Scott from Ace Rollers is
currently manufacturing and supplying
to Ballarat and North Richmond.
Shayne West from Ballarat said they
were already being used and although
it was early days in the trial process,
there were no issues.
The new rollers had a similar life
expectancy as the OEMs.
General discussion
There was a general discussion about
the use of chemical-free CTP plates
following on from the earlier presentation from Dubbo.
Rob Mollee from Kodak said that
regardless of whether the plates are
violet or thermal, chemical-free technologies will certainly assist with
reducing waste and costs.
There might be some modifications
required in prepress to run them, like
all new technologies, but the installed
base worldwide now indicates the
interest in them.
Ian Best from Agfa said there are
now violet-light systems running in
Hobart and Darwin as well as at the
Sunraysia Daily in Mildura and one in
New Zealand
Steve Dunwell from manroland
observed that run lengths are a critical
factor and so, for big sites, that may still
be an issue
Warren Hinder from Fujifilm said
that chemical-free thermal plates were
now showing run lengths of around
100,000 impressions. The company is
also about to release a low chemical
violet system.
Even with low chemical plates, he
said, there still needs to be a system for
safe disposal of waste – it cannot just
go down the sink.
Overall, this is an interesting technology in the light of increased environmental pressures such as carbon
footprinting which will have an impact
across the business.
There was interest from delegates in
SWUG July 2012
how the new UV ink installations at
North Richmond and Canberra are
progressing.
Both sites said the installations were
up and running and working well. At
this stage, it is still too early to give any
specifics.
Issues around consumables and
optimising the right combination are
still being worked out so expect to hear
more on this topic next year.
Mark Gooding from Flint Group
pointed out that the ink viscosity is
very different for UV and that it was a
big part of the challenge.
Tolerances for the ink-water balance
are also much tighter with UV said
Michael Gee.
There was a general discussion
about other UV installations around
the world.
New issues for 2012
In terms of new issues this year, Terry
Skewes from Tamworth highlighted a
problem with ‘twisting’ on the cyan
plate.
The problem is erratic, he said,
appearing about 90% of the time, and
doesn’t happen with any other colours.
The press has been thoroughly
checked over – turner bars, blankets,
motors, web tension - without being
able to locate a cause.
There is no creasing on the web on
entry or exit and the problem seems to
improve with more webs.
Jason Kennedy from Flint Group
suggested using an under-gauge
blanket and to aim for the lower end of
the blanket tolerance.
Single width, single
circumference (swsc)
onvener of the single width,
single circumference engineers
session, Geoff Austin, opened
the meeting by reminding delegates of
last year’s focus on proactive maintenance and the importance of having
a proper plan in place.
Recapping some of the issues raised
last year, Dave Hedges from Tamworth reported that the outcome
regarding creasing in the Goss folder
was as expected.
Some adjustments had been made
without fixing the issue and this does
now appear to be a characteristic of
this type of folder.
Rockhampton had an issue with
folds not lining up and, following a visit
from manroland, this has now
improved.
Dubbo had a problem with plates
having to be trimmed in order to fit
and this has now been fixed by
adjusting the stops.
Murray Bridge had a issue with
water leaking from spray bar
dampening pipes and this has now
been fixed by re-routing the pipes.
C
“
Problems
with opacity
and showthrough in the
past have
largely been
overcome so
that today
there is little
difference
between 42
and 45gsm.”
Andy Stephens suggested that more
research needs to be done to
determine whether it really is
occurring only 90% of the time or
whether it is constant but not obvious.
A useful starting point is document
what is happening on the press in
terms of paper, number of webs etc to
help analyse the variables.
Warrnambool print site experienced
a similar problem on the black and
discovered that a cylinder had been
scratched with spanners. Repairing the
cylinder fixed the problem.
Robert Thompson from the
Gisborne Herald in New Zealand
reported on a problem with creasing
when running 42gsm webs. He has
started to use an anti-creasing roller
but was unsure about the best place to
position it.
The creasing only occurs on 42gsm,
not 45gsm, and seems to be affected by
the temperature of the press hall.
Kym Leonard from Norske Skog
pointed out that the Gold Coast
Bulletin has gone to 42gsm without
experiencing any creasing or changes
on press.
Suggestions included looking at the
path rollers.
Shane Brooks from Launceston said
a similar problem had been experienced at that site with web leads
over the top of the press, as a result of
which they fitted a larger diameter
path roller.
Other suggestions included getting
the press hall air conditioned and
checking to see if there are any
dampening issues.
Mal Morris from Dubbo raised an
issue with the splice breaking over the
turn bar on a half web – is there a set
speed?
Michael Gee said a similar problem
at Ormiston years ago was related to
the reel stand.
Shane Brooks suggested getting an
electrician to look at the reel stand
settings to turn the power down.
Launceston has two reel stands with
different settings for running halfwebs.
Trevor Channon from Murray
Bridge reported on problems with
getting a flat spine when running
45gsm through the Universal folder. Is
it an issue with the paper or the folder?
There are no problems running
52gsm which suggests it is a paper
problem, perhaps as a result of the fact
that it contains more recycled fibre.
Steve Cox from Norske Skog
confirmed that paper with recycled
content will act differently compared
to virgin fibre, but this is not an issue
with other Universal folders such as at
Shepparton and Spot Press.
One suggestion was to change the
pins more often. Spot Press changes
the pins every four weeks and always
uses the proper Goss pins.
Paper discussion
There was a general discussion about
the growing use of 42gsm newsprint.
Steve Cox from Norske Skog said
42gsm has become the most common
style of paper used at most sites.
In the past it used to be about 8%
48gsm, 43% 42gsm and the rest
45gsm. Now it’s about 85% 42gsm.
The biggest users of 45gsm are the
Border Mail, Canberra Times and
Shepparton Newsprinters with most
other sites running 42gsm.
Problems with opacity and showthrough in the past have largely been
overcome so that today there is little
difference between 42 and 45gsm.
While 42gsm may cost more, it uses
fewer rolls with fewer paste-ups which
makes it more cost-effective.
Steve also highlighted the number of
sites that are now going down to
110mm on the core compared to
previously when it used to be 130145mm. This can result in big savings
over time.
Most sites today are getting down to
110mm quite easily, said Steve, and
there were few complaints regarding
faulty rolls – maybe only half a dozen a
year out of 280,000 rolls.
There was a general discussion on
topics covered in the main sessions
regarding the QuickSet press control
system, press guards at Dubbo and the
benefits of oil filtration.
23
SWUG July 2012
Lifting safety standards on site
A number of safety-related topics
were raised during the engineering
sessions, mainly related to the lifting
of heavy components.
S
afe lifting procedures are a vital part of
preventing workplace injuries, particularly in
relation to back complaints that are often
sustained as a result of incorrect or repetitive lifting.
During the engineers sessions, a number of sites
reported on initiatives they have implemented to
reduce lifting injuries.
At Ballarat, the site underwent a random safety
inspection in the publishing room which highlighted
potential problems with operators having to turn and
twist when feeding inserter hoppers.
The site was given four weeks to respond to the
assessment during which time, working in
conjunction with the people who were operating the
equipment, several adjustments were made to
eliminate twisting.
Mark Collins from Ballarat said seven assessments
were made in total in consultation with the
operators, each time further assessing the risk and
adjusting the process.
The final outcome was a great improvement and
one which ultimately satisfied the safety inspector.
Anthony Payne commented that the fact that this
was a random inspection highlighted the importance
of having the correct procedures and processes in
place. Consultation with staff was also vital in
achieving the desired outcome.
There was a general discussion about safe
procedures for lifting and removing items such as
butt cores and turbos.
Michael Aubrey at Newcastle said operators from
the reel stand area had expressed concern about
larger butt cores and their removal.
The site has an old factory pallet jack but
manoeuvrability is a problem in the area so he was
interested to know if delegates had any suggestions
for reducing manual handling.
Mark Collins from Ballarat said the site has “team
lifting” training in place which requires two people.
Training has also been organised to see what new
processes can be implemented.
Mark Grima from Fairfax Printers at Chullora said
the site has a procedure that uses a forklift while
Frank O’Grady at the Border Mail said they use a
heightened trolley although manual lifting is still
required to remove the butt core.
Turbo lifting
When it comes to removing heavy turbos from units,
Peter Broadfoot at APN Yandina highlighted a very
clever system using a hydraulic trolley that runs on
rails – see box right for details.
Peter Morgan from The Age Print Centre said the
site also has a safe procedure for lifting turbos which
comprises lifting gear and trolleys for manoeuvring
the turbo out of the unit and safely onto the gantry.
In the swsc session, Angelo Cirillo from
Shepparton outlined a hydraulic lifting system that
had been installed at the site for plate loading in
order to help reduce the amount of kneeling
required.
The auto-inking system on the press has resulted
in operators having to kneel more often to fit plates.
As a result, two operators had problems with their
knees due to the frequency of kneeling.
The installation of the lift is designed to overcome
this problem. Each lift costs about $15,000 to install
and one lift services two towers.
Look, no hands – Yandina’s turbo lift
The turbo lifting trolley at the APN site at
Yandina for use on the Regioman press
(see above): 1. Hydraulic lifter; 2. Hydraulic
drop pedal; 3. Bar for jacking; 4. Locking
lever for sideways movement.
The system works by attaching two rails
inside the unit onto which a sliding dolly
is positioned.
The lifting trolley is then positioned on
the dolly and secured before being slid
into position under the turbo.
The lifting table on the trolley is moved
sideways under the turbo and then raised
hydraulically to lift the turbo up.
Once raised, the sliding table is moved
back into the middle of the trolley and the
turbo lowered down.
The trolley can then be slid out of the
unit – no manual lifting required.
For more details on how the system
works, contact Scott Henshaw at Yandina
print centre on 07 5454 7826.
INDUSTRY OVERSEAS
INTERNSHIP GRANT
Opening Doors * Expanding Boundaries
If Australia is going to compete in a global economy we need to invest in people to
ensure we are working at the leading edge and with world’s best practice. This Grant
provides an opportunity to gain exposure to global markets and strategies by enabling
applicants to undertake an internship with companies of their choosing anywhere in the
world. The outcome of the Grant will be a research paper documenting the recipient’s
experience and how these learnings can be applied to the Australian market.
GAMAA will award one $15,000 Internship Grant in 2013. Register your interest now and get
ahead of the competition. Applications open October. Visit the GAMAA website for details.
ELIGIBLE CATEGORIES:
MARKETING/PROMOTION,
NEW MEDIA, PRINT, GRAPHIC DESIGN,
INDEPENDENT RESEARCH
For more information:
www.gamaa.net.au
Every action, every
improvement counts
when it comes to
sustainability
That’s why at Norske Skog we are committed to:
• Using forest residues and waste
material – both forest harvesting waste
and recovered paper
• Responsible forest practices
• Reducing our energy use and carbon
footprint
• Using water carefully
• Applying Best Practice manufacturing
NS_002
• Recycling what we produce
Everything we do counts
For further information and our
sustainability booklet phone
Australia (02) 8268 2000
New Zealand (09) 524 3400