22.06.11 - manroland’s newspaper printing systems provide the suitable solution for every demand, everywhere. Latest installations cover Sweden, France, and China with groundbreaking manroland newspaper printing technology replacing older manroland or competitor presses.

Braving the elements to print one of the world’s oldest newspapers
With a REGIOMAN press manroland is presently installing latest technology for one of the world’s oldest newspapers at Pressgrannar AB in Linköping/Sweden: next to other dailies, different freesheets, and tabloid commercial products the REGIOMAN will soon produce the daily Norrköpings Tidningar. It was founded in 1758 which makes it one of the world’s ten oldest newspapers. “To make room for the REGIOMAN we enlarged the pressroom by twelve meters,” says Peter Dahlén, Project Manager at Pressgrannar. “In spite of the very hard and cold winter with sometimes minus 25 degrees Celsius we are perfectly in time with our production schedule,” adds manroland engineer Holger Limmer. The first part of the REGIOMAN with three printing towers and one folder has already been installed. Then the old press will be taken out and the second part of the REGIOMAN will move in. The final configuration features six reel splicers, six printing towers, and two folders. “We are very pleased with manroland and the first part of the project. Now we are looking forward to move full speed ahead with the rest,” says Peter Dahlén.

Enjoying the applause while replacing first COLORMAN after 34 years
Part of a technical modernization program is the GEOMAN sale to Groupe Nice Matin in Nice in the South of France. Three GEOMAN presses are going to replace Nice Matin’s COLORMAN printing system which was installed in 1977 –manroland’s first COLORMAN in the market – and extended during the following ten years. Now latest GEOMAN technology is taking over, with each of the three presses consisting of three reel splicers, three eight-couple towers, one folder, and PPL (PowerPlateLoading), the highly automated plate changing device. Its higher efficiency and full-color capacity will print Nice Matin’s versatile product range economically and in high quality. It will generate more contract printing business than before. Main products are the dailies Nice Matin, Var Matin and Corse Matin with a circulation of approximately 225,000 copies. Every day they come out with another supplement on subjects such as real estate, health, automobile, etc. Apart from that there are two weekly magazines and several freesheets to be printed. The reception of the new presses couldn’t have been friendlier: whenever new components were brought in, some of the 700 staff members of Nice Matin were watching and applauding. Delivery has been finished by the end of April, production start is planned for July 2011. “I was always convinced it was the right decision to replace our COLORMAN by new manroland technology,” says Christian Donati, former Technical Director at Nice Matin. “Now I have retired but I will accompany the GEOMAN project until production starts.” Patrick Molher, present Technical Director, says: “My team and I are very much looking forward to working with the new GEOMAN presses. We are sure they will confirm our positive experiences with manroland and open a new chapter of our successful partnership.”

Enlarging manroland territory in China with latest UNISET technology
To a large extent China is manroland territory as far as newspaper presses are concerned. A new example to prove this is the UNISET for the Xin’an Media Corporation in Hefei, the capital of the Anhui province. It started producing at the beginning of the year 2011 and now prints 20 different newspapers, magazines, advertising material and books. It is China’s first 80,000 copies per hour UNISET featuring three reel splicers, three printing towers, one dryer, and two folders, one of them with a 16-page device. Xin’an Media Corporation is a joint venture of the Anhui Daily Newspaper Group and the South African MIH Print Media Group. The company was decorated for innovation and quality several times and its printing center with plants in Hefei, Huangshan and Fuyang is one of the most advanced in Mainland China.

Since 2004 the Sichuan Ribao Newspaper Group in Chengdu, the capital of the Sichuan province, has been working with four UNISET presses. They print the daily paper Sichuan Ribao and other newspapers and magazines. From 2009 to 2010 Sichuan Ribao’s printing volume increased from 2.2 billion broadsheet pages to 2.6 billion, thus ranking among the Top Ten in China. New capacity for newspaper and commercial printing is urgently needed. Therefore and because Sichuan Ribao is very satisfied with the UNISET’s quality and reliability the 2,000 staff company ordered two new UNISET printing systems in the middle of  2010 featuring 80,000 copies per hour. The presses are equipped with five reel splicers, four printing towers, two folders, and a dryer. They have arrived in Chengdu by mid May.

(manroland.com)