Offset Printing

Oulu: air guitars and jumps in the air

Friday 23. November 2012 - Finnish publisher Kaleva Oy inaugurates a new printing center and a COLORMAN autoprint

The Air Guitar World Championships are held every year in Oulu, Finland. And some of the staff at the new printing center of the Kaleva publishing house are jumping in the air for joy over the performance of the COLORMAN autoprint of manroland web systems.
Oulu, the northernmost major city in the European Union, is not only at the top geographically. Now this city where the Kaleva publishing house is at home is also at the forefront of newspaper printing. On 1 November 2012, in the new printing center, 250 guests celebrated the startup of a COLORMAN autoprint from manroland web systems. A special day for this Finnish company with more than 500 employees: altogether 40 million euros have been invested in the new printing center where, among other publications, Kaleva, Finland’s fourth-biggest circulation newspaper is printed on a COLORMAN autoprint, which is the largest single investment in the company’s history. Only a few weeks before the press commenced production, Jukka Haapalainen, Kaleva’s Managing Director, had this to say: “There are still a million things to be tested but so far everything has run very smoothly and we are right on schedule.” It is now evident that the tests were successful, and Haapalainen emphasizes that he will continue to offer his customers premium quality: “The daily newspaper Kaleva will feature outstanding quality in the future as well. This we promise to our readers and advertisers. I am very grateful to everyone who was involved in this exceptional engineering project – the teams who constructed the printing center, the manufacturers for delivering the best printing system and the best mailroom system, and all other project participants.” Peter Kuisle, Member of the Executive Board at manroland web systems, is extremely satisfied with the outcome of the project: “We at manroland web systems are very proud to have been a part of this future-oriented project, and wish to express our sincere thanks for the excellent cooperation we enjoyed with the experts at Kaleva.”
autoprint meets great expectations
The Kaleva staff are very pleased about the production advantages of the COLORMAN autoprint and the newly-equipped mailroom. The many different regional newspaper editions can now be produced more efficiently, and inserting supplements and sections in the newspaper after the production run is simplified. Every day, the COLORMAN autoprint prints 73,000 Kaleva copies in broadsheet format. Six days a week it prints 20,000 tabloid copies of Ilta-Sanomat for Northern Finland, as well as freesheets and contract printing products in run lengths up to 100,000 copies. Print production is now faster and more flexible: whereas the complete run of the 64-page Kaleva previously took three hours, it now takes less than two. Technical Director Jukka Hurskainen is particularly impressed by the high degree of automation and the excellent satellite inking unit of the COLORMAN autoprint: “With its technology, manroland web systems provides us with the highest print quality and also meets our needs for production capacity.” Equipped with APL (AutomaticPlateLoading), robots on the COLORMAN autoprint load the plates in the plate cylinder. Production stability and quality are ensured by the fully-integrated systems InlineCutoff Control and InlineDampening Control.
True love never dies
After a break of more than 100 years, extending back to 1905, Kaleva has once again invested in press technology “Made in Augsburg.” The COLORMAN autoprint has replaced a competitor press 25 years old, and boasts four eight-couple towers in 9-cylinder satellite design, two 2:5:5 folders, and four reel splicers. AUROSYS takes care of paper reel logistics. With a cylinder circumference of 1120 mm, a cutoff length of 560 mm and a web width of 1600 mm, the COLORMAN autoprint produces up to 90,000 copies per hour running at a speed of 45,000 cylinder rph. Kaleva has been using printcom products such as fountain solution additives and blankets from manroland web systems for a long time.