Finishing & Screen Printing

NewsLiner with CoLiner: Time for New Solutions and New Products

Tuesday 02. April 2013 - Kieler Zeitung GmbH & Co. Offsetdruck KG, based in Kiel, Northern Germany, has become the world's first newspaper printing house to couple one of its three existing NewsLiner A newspaper inserting systems with a CoLiner pre-gathering unit from Muller Martini.

That enables the company to stay on top of insert peaks during the production of a large number of advertising journals.
By combining the NewsLiner A (five stations) with the CoLiner (ten stations), the newspaper printing house in Seglerstadt, Northern Germany, is treading new technological territory together with Muller Martini for the second time within four years. On the previous occasion, Kieler Zeitung GmbH & Co. Offsetdruck KG was the first newspaper publishing house worldwide to commission the ProLiner with CoLiner combination inserting system, which was unveiled at the drupa trade fair in 2008.
“Our three NewsLiners have only reached half of their economic life-time,” says Sven Fricke, Managing Director of Kieler Zeitung GmbH & Co. Offsetdruck KG. “In terms of manageable investment costs, it made sense to upgrade one of the existing inserting lines.” Fricke explains that the modular design of the Muller Martini systems positively invites such additional investments. “What’s more, the layout of the new CoLiner also fits optimally with the NewsLiner in terms of the space available in our mailroom.”
First CoLiner in 2008
Fricke explains that, in addition to the modular design, layout and investment costs, the company’s positive experiences with the ProLiner with CoLiner installed in 2008 played a “significant” role in opting for the new combination solution. “In those four years we have found the CoLiner to be a reliable system expansion. In my eyes it is a cost-effective solution for tackling growing requirements in the field of inserting.”
Even combined with the NewsLiner, the pre-gatherer does not cause “any mechanical problems”, says Stefan Will, Director of Print Finishing Process Organization at Kieler Zeitung GmbH & Co. Offsetdruck KG. “Since it does not have any chains, we need fewer wear parts and have lower maintenance and lifecycle costs. The coupling of the two control systems was challenging, but “Muller Martini solved that.”
On the subject of control, Will describes himself as a “fan” of the Mailroom Production Control (MPC): “We were already satisfied with the predecessor system called GCS. MPC works flawlessly and is a reliable component of our production planning environment.”
Kieler Zeitung GmbH & Co. Offsetdruck KG’s decision just under a year ago to expand its existing equipment, rather than invest in an entirely new inserting system, has also proven to be well-judged for another reason. In recent months, the number of advertising inserts has declined slightly after rising for many years.
664 Million Inserting Processes
Nevertheless, the figures of the Kiel-based newspaper publishing house are still impressive. The number of advertising inserts is likely to amount to some 486 million copies this year. Together with an increasing number of editorial preprinted sections, there will be as many as 664 million inserting processes. “Thanks to new advertising strategies with new, innovative products, we can compensate for the slight decline in traditional advertising inserts,” says Fricke.
Advertising material and preprinted sections are inserted in Kiel
? in the flagship Kieler Nachrichten with four regional editions for Kiel, Plön, Eckernförde and Neumünster (total print run from Monday to Friday of 100,000 copies and on Saturday of 120,000 copies),
? in four daily newspapers printed for external customers with a total print run of 270,000 copies (including the Hamburger Morgenpost with a print run of 140,000 copies),
? in 35 advertising journals with a print run of roughly a million, of which all except two titles are contract work (Kieler Zeitung GmbH & Co. Offsetdruck KG produces nearly all advertising journals in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region).
The number of inserts fluctuates widely between 0 and 25 per newspaper with an upper weight limit of one kilogram per finished product. “It is indisputable that the two CoLiners enable us to stay on top of insert peaks on Tuesday and Friday when we produce the advertising journals, while also reducing personnel costs,” says Will. The inserts are electrostatically blocked at the CoLiner to ensure that they are inserted consistently into the newspapers even at high speed.
Employees Have a Say
The department management decides which of the four inserting lines is used for which product. However, it is the machine operators that decide whether all inserts are inserted on the main machine, whether a combination of the main machine and the CoLiner is used or all inserts are fed solely from the CoLiner.
The active involvement of employees at Kieler Zeitung GmbH & Co. Offsetdruck KG in decision-making processes was also shown during the evaluation of new mailroom equipment suppliers at the brand-new production facility 11 years ago. The machine operators drew up their own final report independently of the management and opted for the solution from Muller Martini despite having been accustomed to another system for years.