Summary

In many printing plants, unwrapping the reels and preparing the splices for a flying reel change are the only tasks in the reel basement that have not yet been automated on a large scale. Any other process, such as unloading the transport vehicle, entering the reels into storage, conveying the reels and mounting them to the autosplicers, can largely be run auto-matically without constant manual intervention. In recent years, a combination of several factors including Japanese solutions installed since the 1980s as well as new systems developed by European manufacturers and an increasing demand from large newspaper companies have caused interest in the subject to grow, espe-cially in Europe. This report, commissioned by Ifra, was written by Andreas Fraas as part of his thesis at the Hochschule für Druck in Stuttgart, Germany. The report gives an overview of the state of the art, referencing all relevant installations throughout Europe. It describes the various tech-nological approaches employed by the manufacturers and tries to list the prerequisites, as deduced from practical experience, for a successful integration of these new systems with existing equipment. We would like to express our gratitude to all manufacturers and users who have supported us in presenting the subject. We trust that the report will provide valuable information to companies preparing to upgrade their plants.