Consumables

A giant step after thorough testing

Thursday 11. October 2012 - After extensive testing Pressehaus Stuttgart receives new spray dampening systems

Mr. Amir Alicic is the Printing Manager at Pressehaus Stuttgart and is the main responsible person for the economical operation of the KBA Commander 4/2 with 10 cylinder satellite, comprising 6 machines with two printing towers, both of which are combined with one folder system. Starting as a printing assistant, Mr. Alicic has worked his way up the corporate ladder, assuming ever more increasing responsibilities in-house and rising to the position he is now. He knows the machines like no one else in the company. Together with his Maintenance Manager, Mr. Bernhard Bähler, they guarantee the machine’s perfect working order and ensure the optimisation for the daily challenges.
“The machine’s configuration is still the same as it was when the installation of the machine begun in early 2000 and taken into operation by the end of 2001”, says the Printing Manager. “After 10 year, it was time for a technical update in order to produce more efficiently”. The key issues include modernising the control centre technology, including an update of the entire workflow as well as increasing the operational safety and maximising the quality of the spray dampening systems. “It seemed a logical step for us to replace the current dampening systems with the latest technology available”, says Mr. Alicic.
A decision was imminent when Amir Alicic and his colleagues visited the Ifra trade show in 2010 and learned about the spray dampening system technology “deltaspray” provided by technotrans AG. He still remembers the first discussions at the booth very well. “The representative claimed that they had a spray dampening system that was virtually maintenance-free, and he was serious about that”. Unimaginable for an expert who has become accustomed to removing several nozzles from the dampening system every day and cleaning them as they always clogged. And this since the first production run of his machine in 2001. “There was a small bowl next to each printing tower. The clogged nozzles were collected and placed into the bowl so they could be cleaned later and replace other clogged nozzles at the start of the next shift. This was completely normal to us – we even employed one of our staff full-time to do nothing else but continuously clean nozzles and dampening systems”.
technotrans offered Mr. Johannes Degen (CEO) and Amir Alecic to visit successful installation of deltaspray spray dampening systems at various news paper printing facilities all over the world and talk to local experts about their experience. “I am sure, these journeys would have been very interesting.”, says Alicic “However, every newspaper printing press and their configurations are different. For this reason, a visit to other colleagues would not have had the necessary persuasive power”. Thus, technotrans took it one step further, explains the regional Sales Manager, Mr. Klaus Wiedermann. “We are absolutely convinced of the quality of our solution; which is easy, considering the multitude of our successful installations”, says Mr. Wiedemann. “Therefore, we offered Pressehaus Stuttgart to install our spray dampening system on four ink units in one of the printing towers and conduct a test with them”.
This self-confidence convinced even Amir Alicic. “I thought that they would never offer this if there was any risk involved for them”, says the Printing Manager. “One thing was certain, if the test was successful, this concept would become our new system”. On April 2011, four deltaspray spray dampening systems were installed in the bottom “H” of tower 12 and a test was performed. The production, using the new equipment, started without any problems. Even after several weeks, there were no negative observations. “It was impressive to realise – under actual conditions – what technotrans meant by its “maintenance-free” statement.”
In order to evaluate a complete 4/4 web, while focusing on a reduced number of waste copies, on June 2011 the spray dampening systems in the upper “H” of the tower were also replaced with deltaspray technology. “From that day on, maintenance and service at this location of tower 12 was a thing of the past”, says the Printing Manager. Still, Pressehaus Stuttgart waited almost an entire year to evaluate the results. However, in April 2012 technotrans received the order to equip all machines with deltaspray systems. In June 2012, 48 deltaspray systems were installed in six additional towers and since that day, seven towers are operating with 56 technotrans systems. “Since their installation in tower 12, the first eight spray dampening systems required no attention whatsoever. What’s more, we do not require any additional compressed air”, says a confident Amir Alicic. According to plan, the remaining 5 towers will also be retrofitted in January 2013.
“The engineering solutions provided by technotrans are absolutely convincing” sums up Alicic. “In addition to the maintenance-free feature, we now can totally avoid the use of compressed air that used to be necessary to clear clogged nozzles. “Compressed air is very cost-intensive. Therefore, in the long run, it is wise to invest more in the deltaspray system from the start when considering the length of operating time”. The Printing Manger mentions another benefit of technotrans technology, which is the control of the equipment,. He describes it as unsusceptible, precise, and reliable. The spray distribution across the printing plates thus is very even, allowing the dampening solution to be reduced further. This reduces the number of wasted copies, improves the ink flow, and fluctuations of the density, which are due to the water, do rarely occur.
Pressehaus Stuttgart is convinced that the general overhaul of its machinery will guarantee a production that will be profitable for at least 10 more years. And the company is confident that this newly installed technology will allow it to achieve that.
Amir Alicic also thinks that the new technology deserves credit for his newspaper’s acceptance into the International Newspaper Color Quality Club”: “The print examples that included the measurement fields and were provided to the IFRA were produced exclusively with the deltaspray system on tower 12”.
Pressehaus Stuttgart is owned 100% by Südwestdeutsche Medien Holding GmbH (SWMH) with headquarters in Stuttgart. It is one of the largest group of newspaper companies and other media in Germany. Together with its principle shareholder Medien Union, next to Axel Springer AG and the WAZ-Mediengruppe, Pressehaus Stuttgart is one of the three biggest daily newspaper groups in Germany.