Like many press owners SAPESO was concerned about the long term availability of their printing capacity as their existing control systems were already obsolete. To solve this problem they turned to ABB to replace the existing controls with modern systems based on ABB’s Advant Controller AC500, a system that is used in countless demanding industries and for which spare parts will be available for at least the next ten years and can be bought from either ABB or independent suppliers around the world.

The scope of the order is divided into three phases. First the unit controls on the six 4-hi printing towers, two per press, will be replaced. The second phase sees the replacement of the controls on the three folders, and finally, in the third phase, the control systems on six reelstands will be replaced.

When upgrading the control systems on the towers and folders ABB will also replace the obsolete and proprietary Interbus Loop devices with standard components. The list of devices to be replaced includes the LBA Interbus Loop master units, originally manufactured by manroland, web break detectors, ink level sensors, interfaces to the Festo valves and positional encoders.

The replacement of the ANTEK infeeds is an additional part of the reelstand retrofit. Here too ABB will be supplying a compact, modular and, indeed, plug & play solution that is directly suitable for all infeeds of the type EZ3. The existing ANTEK drives will be replaced with new ABB ACSM1 drives. The peripheral modules such as the power supplies, contactors and circuit breakers will also be replaced. The existing motors and encoders will be retained. The new components will be delivered pretested on mounting plates so the installation time can be reduced to a minimum.

This project is made possible by the cooperation agreement between ABB and manroland web systems. The new ABB controls will communicate with remaining PECOM units and also with the manroland control consoles.

The commissioning of the first phase of the project, the retrofitting of the 6 printing towers, will begin in November of this year. The retrofits of the folders and reelstands will then follow in two subsequent phases in the course of 2016 and 2017.

ABB is a leading automation supplier to the newspaper industry. ABB Printing (www.abb.com/printing) delivers solutions that provide unique and totally integrated end-to-end control, protect existing investments and provide management information essential to improving profitability.

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 140,000 people.

manroland web systems GmbH (www.manroland-web.com) is a leading manufacturer of web-offset printing systems. The company provides integrated solutions for commercial web offset, newspaper and digital printing. A worldwide sales and service network also markets ancillary printing equipment and pressroom products as well as software products and workflow management systems.