Offset Printing
Advanced Web Offset – Vista, CA select Harland Simons Press Control Upgrade
Friday 30. April 2010 - Following on from a very successful 2009, Harland Simon has secured another press controls upgrade, this time from a large commercial printer in Vista; CA. Harland Simon has been selected by Advanced Web Offset as the vendor of choice to replace the press control system on their Goss Universal 45 newspaper/commercial press.
The conversion will be carried out in the 3rd quarter of 2010 without any disruption to AWOs busy production schedule. The project includes replacement of the main press control elements [PressMan and PressVision], streamlining of ink presetting, while continuing to use AWOs existing RIP network and automating job creation whilst eliminating obsolete software and hardware [including the MPU].
The principles of the upgrade are: Replacement of all Hewlett Packard press control PCs, whilst retaining the original consoles and interfacing with the existing control keys. This minimizes the operator learning curve and reduces the overall cost to AWO. Furthermore, Harland Simons advanced touch screen technology [see inset]; Allen-Bradley ControlLogix PLC and Dell PCs are utilized to give AWO a truly off-the-shelf solution. The solution is designed to maximize system benefits and supportability whilst maintaining daily production and minimizing cost. This will be achieved by replacing the intelligence of the existing press control systems with new off-the-shelf industry standard equipment that allows Harland Simon and Advance Web Offset to maintain the system whilst eliminating the components that have become obsolete. The existing press control system is not capable of supporting additional press components such as new printing units.
Bob Hicks, AWOs Plant Manager commented, “I have been very impressed with Harland Simons responsiveness to our objectives, their intimate knowledge of our specific Goss computer systems and the quality of the system upgrade they proposed. Instead of just an OS upgrade to the same original software and new PC’s, the Harland Simon system upgrades the OS and offers a much improved system with tremendous opportunities to add more features at press as needed. The clincher: references agreed the Harland Simon system offers a much improved product over the original press system and the Harland Simon installation team was an outstanding highly skilled team that was very accommodating during the change to the new system.”
At all times, the existing system will remain operational until the new system is fully tested and commissioned, which eliminates any risk to production. This method also keeps costs down whilst replacing all the vulnerable parts of the system. The solution is based on techniques that have been successfully developed for the replacement of many control systems originally supplied by Goss, Rockwell Automation, Honeywell and MAN over the past 15 years.
John Staiano, Senior Vice President for Harland Simon, further commented, “We are delighted with Bobs decision to select Harland Simon; this a substantial order as it further expands our controls capabilities firmly into the commercial market.”
Although this is the first controls order placed at a Commercial Printing facility, similar upgrade procedure has been successful used at Chicago Sun Times, IL and Star – Phoenix, Saskatoon.