Offset Printing
“I was impressed”
Friday 23. October 2009 - Increased production safety and comfort following "Press Retrofit" at Landshut printing house
“I was really impressed”, said Thomas Hauck, head of the printing house in Landshut, South Germany, commenting on the recently completed “Press Retrofit” of the KBA Journal machine. The extremely positive impression he gained is primarily due to the fact that daily production was not interrupted or even endangered at any time during the upgrade of the 16 year-old machine. He thus addresses the concerns held by many of his counterparts who tend to view a “Press Retrofit” with skepticism because they fear too many uncertainties during plant production.
In fact, the specialists from EAE Ewert Ahrensburg Electronic GmbH, the Ahrensburg-based system house, only used the printing houses production-free times of the day to update the machine and its accompanying control and operating units in line with the latest standards. At the start of daily production, all that was needed was a flick of an approximately thumb-sized switch to ensure that the rotation operation was performed with the usual configuration – without any hitches.
It is EAEs switch-over technology that can provide the heads of the respective printing houses with the necessary assurance that their daily production operations will not be hampered despite the technical modernization measures. This method can be applied to almost all “Press Retrofit” measures. EAE also offers appropriate consultancy as part of their service.
The decision to upgrade the machine in Landshut was not in fact based on a situation posing a threat to production. The head of the printing house, Thomas Hauck, had rather come to realize that the supply of spare parts could no longer be completely guaranteed, which meant a situation which could endanger the printing process could not be ruled out.
The KBA Journal-type machine with SBC3 and SBC4 generation control computers dated from 1993. It had been extended in 2000. Four print towers via two folds were used for production. Until a few weeks ago, the machine had still been operated via EAE control consoles on the basis of MP5 computers.
The Landshut rotation upgrade comprised several components, including:
Control consoles: The four old EAE control consoles were replaced by three of the latest generation of EAE “Baltic Star” control consoles with Windows operating system. Modern 16:10 monitors are now used to visualize production. This upgrade also replaced EAEs former MuP message and reporting system with the current “Info” analysis tool.
Network controllers: The existing EAE Net PCs (Arcnet controllers) were replaced by Siemens PCs.
Printing unit and fold control: All SBC3 and SBC4 generation computers were replaced by EAE EPC2020 computers. This applies to the printing units and folds as well as to the web up tape control.
Main drives: The existing drive controls were replaced by controllers from Siemens.
These “Press Retrofit” measures also provided the management of the Landshut printing house with the additional option of subsequently using EAEs “Print” solution, a production planning and preset system. This system can significantly reduce the amount of start-up waste, particularly in the area of presetting ink zones, register, dampening etc.
The complete “Press Retrofit” measure was completed in nine weeks. The head of the printing house, Hauck, can now rely on a problem-free support and a guaranteed supply of spare parts for the next 10 to 15 years. The use of modern hardware and software also ensures extremely fast help through remote diagnostics, should support be required.
In his own words, the head of the Landshut printing house concludes that the “Press Retrofit” was not only worth it because production reliability has been restored. “Production has also become much more comfortable and quicker”, he adds about the machine upgrade.