The Rubens newspaper publishing house employs around 130 people including the printing plant staff. Independence and in-house production technology have always been part of the company’s philosophy. Thus the Hellweger Anzeiger, published daily out of Unna, has had a full editorial team since 2015. The publishing family also puts out the MonTakt and Sonntagskurier freesheets. Other business areas include contract printing of daily newspapers and freesheets, local telephone directories, local radio programme guides and digital services.

Accommodating readers’ and advertisers’ needs
The Hellweger Anzeiger is published in Rhenish format with five local editions tailored to the five municipalities within the distribution area, as a rule with 32 pages or as many as 64 on Saturdays. The print run adds up to 30,000 copies including local editions of the Westfälische Rundschau, all of which roll off a KBA Colora that has been operating since 2006. Production involves a great deal of set-up and changeover effort due to the fragmented structure of the daily newspaper, which is very responsive to the needs of local readers and advertisers. Two shifts are worked on Thursdays and Fridays when the company’s in-house freesheets and other publishers’ titles are printed.

Rubens has relied on Ferag technology for postpress processing since 1997, when an ETR inserting drum made it possible for the first time to insert up to six products simultaneously. This item of equipment also arrived factory-overhauled back in the day and has since done two decades of reliable service for its present owner. In the meantime, however, Rubens too experienced a significant rise in inserts and a corresponding need to increase inserting capacity. For this reason, a decision to upgrade this area was taken in 2017 and in January 2018 the ETR made way for a state-of-the-art RollStream system.

Two generations of paced conveyors combined
The new equipment consists of a RollSertDrum inserting drum, two RollStream precollecting lines with a total of two main jacket feeders and eleven JetFeeder hoppers. The mix of old and new paced conveyors is very unusual: a TTR chain continues to convey folded newspapers from the KBA Colora press to the inserting drum, while the newly installed UTR universal paced conveyor covers the stretch between the RSD and the compensating stackers. All components were adapted to modern control technology in the course of the factory overhaul, so that PRA-Plus can now be used as the central control unit.

The printing plant in Unna fortunately offered sufficient space to house and install the new precollecting and inserting line in parallel with ongoing production between early January and mid-February 2018. The switchover then took place on a weekend. As management consultant Markus Dollenkamp said, the project ran exactly to schedule and the new equipment has met the company’s expectations ever since.

About Ferag AG:
Ferag AG, with its headquarters at Hinwil in Switzerland, has for 60 years been known and respected in the printing industry for high quality, absolute dependability and perfect customer support. The traditional, family-owned company is seen as the undisputed market and technological leader in the development, manufacture and marketing of postpress processing systems. Ferag is also a specialist in innovative conveyor and processing technology for the most varied industrial applications and goods distribution systems. For example, with its innovative Skyfall system, the company has in recent years become very successful in sectors like e-commerce and intralogistic materials flow. Like its affiliate companies Denipro AG, WRH Global AG with its 20 subsidiaries, and PMC Print Media Corporation, Ferag is part of the Walter Reist Holding AG corporate group, which employs a staff of more than 800 worldwide.
(https://www.ferag.com)