V-TAB operates six printing centers at various locations in Sweden and employs 120 people in Landvetter. The plant there has a manroland Colorman web press with eight towers and three folders. Three of these towers, manufactured in 1987, take the form of 9-cylinder satellite units while the other five are 10-cylinder satellites built in 2001.

The production portfolio mainly includes dailies such as Göteborgs-Posten, Nya Lidköpings Tidning, Svenska Dagbladet, Aftonbladet, Halland Posten, Hallands Nyheter, and several others. Also other various marketing materials are also printed in the course of the day, for instance for the Coop supermarket chain and XXL, Scandinavia’s premier sports goods retailer. The average print volume per day is in the region of 300,000 copies.

The heavy load on the web press was one of the chief reasons to embark on the present retrofit project. Dan Eriksson, Technical Director: “We’re increasingly frustrated by quality problems with the old printing units, and we desperately need to do take action to avert the mechanical failures that will otherwise be inevitable. The aim of this retrofit is to raise the quality benchmark and restore the reliability of our production equipment.”

Two press makes – one control system
EAE has initially been asked to equip an additional, yet-to-be-installed tower with modern EAE technology. This tower belongs to a KBA Commander web press built in 2000, which is in good mechanical condition and consists of 9-cylinder satellite units. Together with a KBA reelstand, it will be taken to Landvetter from a V-TAB plant in Örebro, some 175 miles away, that has been closed down. At Landvetter it will serve as a ninth tower for the Colorman web press.

EAE will then convert the KBA Commander’s four-high tower to latest-generation EAE press controls and connect it up to the Colorman web press’ existing EAE control technology with five EAE control consoles. The EAE Print production planning and preset system will be upgraded at the same time.

The newspaper press currently installed in Landvetter is no stranger to EAE. From 2007 until late 2009, EAE retrofit specialists were in overall charge of relocating the Colorman press, which V-TAB had purchased second-hand, from Stockholm down south to Landvetter and subsequently installing it there. As part of this major project all units of the press were fitted out with unified EAE control technology.

Renewed collaboration with EAE
Eriksson explains why it was an obvious decision to award the new retrofit order in Landvetter to EAE: “Our company has had an excellent relationship with EAE for many years now. In view of the magnificent job the EAE team did during our last project, it made sense to work with them again this time round.”
 
EAE will modernize the control technology for the additional tower in the first half of 2017. Two further upgrade steps are also planned by V-TAB for 2018. The installation of the KBA Commander tower next year will pave the way. The idea is to replace the older seventh and eighth towers of the existing Colorman web press with two newer KBA Commander towers from Örebro.

It wouldn’t be at all surprising if EAE were also to be charged with carrying out the retrofit work for this next phase – which will be just as complex as when the first tower was rejuvenated.

About EAE Engineering Automation Electronics GmbH:
The Ahrensburg-based company is active in graphic industries, automation solutions and automation technology. The company, founded in 1962 by Richard Ewert, is the leading supplier of controls, automation solutions and software for newspaper printers. EAE's solutions are being used in all areas of a newspaper printing plant – from pre press to the mailroom. Worldwide more than 550 newspaper printing plants are using EAE's control systems to produce more than 125 million newspapers each day.

For more information on EAE please visit: http://www.eae.com