25.10.11 - Opole-based Pro Media printing house, part of the Poland’s Media Regionalne publishing group, is installing two production lines from Ferag that will take newspapers off the new press for finished copy completion, bundling and addressing. The new solution will mean that the postpress processing of daily and weekly newspapers printed at Pro Media, which previously had been accomplished manually, will now be highly streamlined. The management team at Pro Media can confirm that both lines will be fully operational by the end of October.

Pro Media printing house, based in Opole (in the south-west of Poland), was established in 1998. Today, it is one of five newspaper printing facilities belonging to the Media Regionalne Group. Production at Pro Media is almost equally divided between its own titles (mainly Nowa Trybuna Opolska, a leading regional daily newspaper in the Opole area) and external jobs – the most recent being regional weeklies (more than 30) and dailies, with big variations in circulations (the smallest amounting to several hundred copies only). Specific product structures and the acquisition of a more efficient press offering speeds of 35,000 cph compelled the Pro Media management team to order a more automated and flexible solution that allowed greater efficiency during processing of the final product: take-up off the press, completion, conveying to the mailroom plus bundle formation in readiness for distribution.
 
“Soon after purchasing the Solna press, we began discussions with Ferag about a solution that suited our production,” says Pro Media Director Marcin Wilczynski. “We opted not only for higher automation and efficiency, but also for the opportunity to zone the bundles that we form in-house at our printing centre. Our goal is to streamline the distribution process of individual titles printed by our company, and the concept supplied by Ferag will be a great help in this respect.”

The solution comprises two lines that allow simultaneous, independent collecting of copies printed in two sections on the Solna press. Moreover, each printing tower can produce full-colour pages, while the configuration of the press enables two 24- or 36-page products to be printed at the same time.

Marcin Wilczynski continues: ”It is very important that we are able to print a full-colour 56-page newspaper in one pass. The press is equipped with two folders (one of them allows for stitching, too) and handles either tabloid/broadsheet or quarterfold production.” The products are collected by one mobile station and transferred to the mailroom using TTR conveyors. Both lines culminate with stackers, one conventional and two ABL devices with three chambers. The latest are also equipped with bundle addressing. “In my opinion, it’s the first such highly automated mailroom line in Poland” adds President of Ferag Polska Jacek Bucholc. In other printing facilities, jobs of this type are still processed manually – standard 100-copy bundles, with odd counts collected manually. At Opole, although the line comprises relatively few components, they have achieved a high level of functionality – with an efficiency that is, in fact, greater that the printing press itself.

”When planning the solution as a whole, the ability to zone bundles and label them with the distribution route and sales drop-off was very important for us,” states Marcin Wilczynski. “It brings a completely new set of opportunities, especially as far as the distribution of our flagship product Nowa Trybuna Opolska is concerned. We can now prepare bundles accurately, in-house, instead of having a carrier assemble standard bundles.

Marcin Wilczynski adds that both Ferag lines will be fully operational by the end of October, and that new possibilities that these solutions bring will be explored during the coming weeks. For Pro Media, that represents a minor revolution not only involving postpress but prepress processes, too, where two completely new, automatic CtP systems will soon be installed. Moreover, the entire printing hall building is currently undergoing a refit. So customers will soon be seeing a completely new image for the Pro Media company.
 
Marcin Wilczynski says that the new investments, which will bring greater functionality and flexibility, will enable more efficient handling of Pro Media’s own Media Regionalne title and also customer publications, and will also enable the acquisition of new jobs: “We are counting on it! And incidentally, our plans go beyond conventional newspaper production to involve semi-commercials, as well, printed on regular newsprint. Our new opportunities – both in terms of format and colour – as well as the higher speed and quality of the overall production lines (including Ferag systems) will be important selling points when negotiating with our customers.