30.08.11 - North of London, in Luton, West Ferry Printers is investing GBP 60 million to establish a modern newspaper printing centre. Ferag solutions will be used for taking copies off the four presses at a printing speed of 90,000 an hour, as well as for bundling.

KBA Commander CT presses comprising 22 towers and 4 folders are included in the GBP 60 million investment package. The first coldset press will be up and running by late 2011. The Daily Express, Daily Star and Daily Sport newspapers – amongst the highest circulation daily newspapers in the UK – will be printed at the new location.

The double-width presses reach a maximum speed of 90,000 copies an hour and allow the production of daily newspapers with a maximum of 128 pages in four-colours throughout. In the mailroom, Ferag has been a reliable partner to West Ferry Printers for more than 20 years. An especially challenging aspect of the Luton project is take the 128-page daily newspapers off the folder delivery and secure their transfer to the mailroom at a speed of 90,000 copies an hour.

Here, too, the tried-and-tested TPC forwarding station forms the interface with the mailroom. The TPC gripper, which is considerably wider than conventional grippers, means that heavier and thicker products also reach the MultiStack stacking systems securely and dependably – a task that’s handled by four lines, feeding a total of eight MultiStack units. Next comes topsheet application, before an underwrapper is fed to the separate bundles. Finally, the bundles are strapped using SmartStrap machines. From there, PKT conveyors transport the separate bundles to four Segbert palletizers, which stack them fully automatically for delivery to the distribution centre.