Consumables
Baldwin Litho Spray Maxima Helps Overcome Fan-Out At Göttinger Tageblatt
Tuesday 05. February 2008 - A Baldwin Litho Spray Maxima system has helped German newspaper Göttinger Tageblatt overcome problems of fan-out, which have occurred since the printer has been handling a much wider variety of newsprint on its 11-year old KBA Colora.
The Lower Saxony printer has also fitted a new register control system to the 1,260 mm press, which has four four-high towers and is used to print a range of freesheets and advertising papers as well as the daily Göttinger Tageblatt. The newspaper has a total weekly circulation of about 260,000.
According to the company the register problems were a combination of growing variations in the quality of newsprint, the tendency for a four-high press configuration to have a greater fan-out impact on registration and the effect of offset dampening on lateral web stretch. The previous Baldwin spray dampening system had been fitted at the time of the KBAs commissioning in 1996 and did not reflect the huge advances that have been made in spray dampening technology since then.
“We needed to apply as low a level of fount solution as possible to keep fan-out at bay, along with accurate controls and reliable operation of the dampening system,” says pressroom manager Joachim Greibke.
Production manager Dirk Lohrberg explains that the purchase of the latest Baldwin technology was not simply a replacement investment. “The unified, complete redesign of the spray bars, with nozzle assemblies in stainless steel and the newly developed nozzles with optimised spray distribution make a big difference, particularly as the old system was no longer able to guarantee a constant spray effect.”
The benefits offered by Baldwins Constant C technology have proved to be significant at the German plant. Constant C surrounds each nozzle tip with an air curtain that shields the nozzles from ink mist or paper dust etc, preventing nozzles from clogging or plugging. In addition to swapping the 32 spray bars for Litho Spray Maxima, Baldwin has upgraded the digital control system and integrated this with the EAE control desk of the KBA Colora.
Baldwins Litho Spray Maxima operates with a constant pressure and so changes to the quantity of dampening solution applied are achieved by altering the spray frequency, a feature controlled very precisely from the control desk or a stand alone unit. The nozzle assembly of each Litho Spray Maxima spray bar is fitted with eight nozzles, with two nozzles assigned to a printing plate. The distribution of dampening solution overlaps at the edges between adjacent nozzles, so that the first roller in each dampening system receives a constant supply of fountain solution.
This consistency has a direct impact on the print quality, enabling much smoother colour gradients and screen tints. In addition, Litho Spray Maxima allows targeted zonal adjustments to be made. This provides the flexibility to respond appropriately when producing print subjects with high variations in ink take-off over the whole press width, or to compensate for variations in evaporation, resulting from temperature differences between the drive and operator sides of the press. Since the new Litho Spray Maxima was commissioned on all four high-towers at Göttinger Tageblatt, the company uses less than 2 per cent of fount solution additive.
The implementation of the Baldwin spray dampening system and the new register control system has had a major impact, says Dirk Lohrberg. “We have now achieved waste savings of approximately 80 tons per year. Each start-up cycle of the press has been shortened by five to seven minutes, which results in significant cost reductions, while we also achieve more consistent print quality.”
Göttinger Tageblatt GmbH & Co. KG is a subsidiary of Verlagsgruppe Madsack, Hanover, and employs more than 200 people. The printing and publishing house of Göttinger Tageblatt is located in the university town, Göttingen, in Lower Saxony. The main title of the plant is Göttinger Tageblatt, which is the leading regional paper in the Göttingen area. The sub-edition Eichsfelder Tageblatt and the title Alfelder Zeitung, also printed in Göttingen, reach a daily circulation of around 10.000 copies each. This portfolio is complemented by 900.000 freesheets and up to 600,000 advertising papers each week.