ATDL

VIENNA — New press models and new press installations paced Ifra Expo 2011 as the show opened its doors for a three-day run.

Goss International, manroland and Koenig & Bauer AG each introduced a new press model as well as equipment sales while Wifag disclosed a sale of a 371 press as well as details about its digital press system. Manugraph DGM, meantime, said it sold presses to Brazilian and Canadian printers. Among the developments (in alphabetical order):

Goss rolled out the 90,000-copy-per-hour doublewide Colorliner CPS press and said Dundee, Scotland-based newspaper printer DC Thomson & Co. Ltd. will install an 8-tower coldset/heatset version of the machine to anchor its production. Harland Simon, meantime, won the contract to supply controls and management systems for the project. The CPS is based on Goss' existing FPS system and features a full slate of automation capabilities.

Koenig & Bauer showcased its Commander CL press, a doublewide, four-high tower with non-splittable H-type printing units that's geared to mid-sized newspapers with circulations of between 25,000 and 100,000 copies. The press, rated up to 85,000 copies per hour, is equipped with Roller Tronic automatic roller bearings, a triple-roller spray dampener and water-cooled main motors. KBA said two Bavarian publishers have ordered CL presses for their operations. Zeitungsverlag Oberbayern will put into operation a five-tower version with five reelstands and two folders, while Oberbayerisches Volksblatt in Rosenhein will install a 48-page version of the machine.

Manroland unveiled a new version of its Colorman press, the e:line. The 90,000-copy-per-hour machine is engineered to be modular, allowing customers to select what type of speed, quality, automation or design they want to incorporate, manroland said. German publisher Allgäuer Zeitung in Kempten is the first newspaper to purchase the e:line, and will put the machine into operation in October 2012, manroland said.

Manugraph DGM sold a 9-unit Cityline Express, configured as two four-high towers and an F222 folder to Ipanema in Sorocaba, Brazil, and an 8-unit Cityline Express configured as two four-high towers and an F222 folder to Soller in Criciuma, Brazil. Both presses will be in operation next year. MDGM also sold an 8-unit DGM 430 press to WebNews in North York, Ontario, Canada, that will be added to its existing press. The project, which also includes the installation of new DGM DMC-4000 drives, will be completed in January.

Wifag sold an evolution 371 press, configured as a Berliner, to Minden, Germany, publisher J.C.C. Bruns Betriebs GmbH. The press, designed as three four-high towers and one folder, will go into production in 2014. Wifag also said the Hong Kong Economic Times purchased four, four-high Solna D390 towers that will be added to HKET's new 8-tower D390 press that the paper put into production earlier this year. Additionally, Wifag unveiled a new plate changer system, the APX, developed in part with Nela. The system, which can load up to 12 plates in a single package, can allow newspapers to earmark plates for multiple production runs simultaneously, Wifag said. Finally, Wifag said its digital press is based on single-pass printing technology and internally developed workflow software that can be integrated with existing editorial platforms.

Other Ifra Expo developments (in alphabetical order):

Agfa Graphics launched Arkitex Eversify, a cloud-based version of its workflow app designed for newspapers looking for an affordable way to enter the mobile and digital publishing space. The HTML5-based app enables publishers to distribute their content to multiple channels, simultaneously. Agfa is also showing its previously announced N94-VCF chemistry-free newspaper plate, updates to its Arkitex workflow and version 9 of the Arkitex Grafix RIP.

EidosMedia said Italian publisher RCS MediaGroup will consolidate the published and unpublished assets of its divisions into a single DAM based on its Méthode publishing platform.

The publisher has been using Méthode's editorial and CMS functions for several years and the new DAM will serve both its editorial and production environments.

Meantime, Eidos announced that Le Monde magazine went live with Méthode, using MéthodeMag, an integration into the Méthode workflow environment that uses Adobe InDesign as its pagination tool.

Ferag added a new feature to its Navigator postpress software. The Optimizer allows newspapers to better manage inserts and how they are processed within feeder hoppers.

England-based Westferry Printers, which is constructing a new plant anchored by four Koenig & Bauer Commander CT presses, purchased CTP systems and associated components from Fujifilm, Krause and Nela to handle prepress. Krause is supplying four LS Jet Multiformat 350 violet machines with Bluefin processors. Westferry will use Fujifilm's Brilla LP-NNW plates as well as plate management and sortation equipment from Nela for the plant, which will go into full operation early next year.

NewspaperDirect announced a partnership with Kooaba AG, a Swiss startup specializing in image recognition, to connect more than 2,000 printed newspapers in 95 countries to the digital world. PressDisplay users will be able to use Kooaba's Paperboy app on their smartphones to snap a photo of the newspaper page they want to view. Once the photo is taken, users will automatically gain full access to the PressDisplay edition of the paper. In the roll-out phase, NewspaperDirect will make newspaper content immediately available within Paperboy in Germany, Switzerland and Austria for more than 75 additional titles. Among them the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Austrian Der Standard and Germany's Der Tagesspiegel. More than 780 U.S., UK and Canadian newspapers will follow in November. Russian, Asian and other European readers, as well as readers in Australia, New Zealand and all other countries will be able to use the Paperboy app with their local newspapers later in the year, the companies said.

Océ said it sold digital printing systems to two newspaper producers. Swiss Post will use a JetStream 1000 digital press for a personalized newspaper it will launch Nov. 1 while Paris-based Interval will begin using a JetStream 1400 for national and international newspaper production in December.

PPI Media said Norway's Media Norge AS will install its PlanPag production planning app and its AdPag classified pagination app to anchor its prepress.

ProImage introduced Eversify, a cloud-based mobile and digital publishing app for newspapers and Xtent Media, its new browser-based multiplatform publishing app. Agfa also debuted new versions of its NewsWay workflow, NewsWay PressRegister press registration and OnColor Eco ink-optimization software.

Roxen said that international newspaper publisher Metro will soon launch tablet editions of its newspapers using Roxen's new mobile publishing software. The platform, initially for Apple's iPad, will support the Android OS in a later release, Roxen said.

French publisher Group Philippe Amaury said it will equip its printing plant with postproduction systems from Schur Packaging Systems. The order consists of two single-copy gripper lines, six TS 800 stacker/bundling lines, UP 660 bottomwrappers and automatic bundle distribution systems that will send completed bundles to the correct loading position at the loading bay.

Tolerans introduced a puncher integrated with its Speedliner inline ribbon-stitching machine that will support thumb-indexing in tabloid newspaper production. The puncher, Tolerans said, will allow readers to pull out tabloid sections without having to shake them in order to find the section they want to read. Tolerans said the indexes are produced by the stitcher at full production speed.

Mobile publishing software provider Twipe introduced its iPad tablet authoring app, Tablet Optimised Newspaper App. Belgium newspaper De Standaard, the first newspaper to use the software to support its iPad distribution, said downloads increased 46 percent one month after it began using the software, according to Twipe.

News & Tech will have full coverage of Ifra Expo, including more information about vendors' announcements and sales, in the November/December edition.