Müller Martini has launched the high-speed NewsGrip F conveyor which is central to its multi-line Malayala Manorama order.
The company, which claims the fastest single-gripper conveyor with a speed of up to 100,000 cph and 1:1 pick-up, is supplying five lines to the 2.3 million-circulation Indian daily, each with two NewsStack compensating stackers and Sitma film wrapper with cross strapping.
The lines interface new Mitsubishi presses in Kozhikode, Kottayam, Pathnamthitta and Kollam in Kerala, and will come on-stream between December 2014 and the end of next year.
The new universal conveyor uses a slim aluminum profile for flexible and compact guides with tight bends, and says these can easily assembled, exchanged or adjusted to changes in the chain run.
“The NewsGrip F can therefore be adapted to new requirements in the mailroom at any time,” says product management director Adrian Mayr.
The system interfaces with upstream and downstream components and with the new Connex.Mailroom process management system and the maker’s older MPC system.
Müller Martini also introduced a ProLiner D inserting system with a double production mode at the World Pubishing Expo in Amsterdam.
The option enables a newspaper with few inserts to run faster, while retaining single production for products with a lot of supplements.
Existing ProLiners can be retrofitted. Additional components are needed according to configuration, with an intermediate opening module added and the conveyor adjusted.
• A year after celebrating 50 years of making printing presses, and following the opening of a new print technology centre, Müller Martini will close its press manufacturing operation in Maulberg, Germany.
The company blames low sales volumes and says it will focus on print finishing, strengthened by its recent takeover of Heidelberg’s bindery equipment service and spare parts business.
“Despite extensive investments and years of effort, the broad take-up of offset technology on the packaging market has only succeeded to a limited extent,” chief executive Bruno Müller says.
A search for partners failed, and Maulberg will become a services operation with up to 80 jobs affected. nngx
Pictured: Service technicians Kaliyaperumal Sambandam, Mathivanan Sampath and Sivakumar Selvarju from Muller Martini India (with project manager Mathias Naef) learn about the NewsGrip F in Zofingen
