IFRA

With the start-up of the third and final Mitsubishi 4 x 2 Diamondstar press line Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Printing & Packaging Machinery completed the Kiba plant project of Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest daily circulation newspaper with approximately 10 million copies. The Kiba plant is located in the heart of Tokyo. The first two Diamondstar press lines installed at the Kiba plant started production in March 2010. All three press lines are equipped with the Diamond-Eye closed-loop print quality control system (in the picture).
 

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The research by Dr. Ahmed Mahmoud Yosri Ahmed (Teacher, Faculty of Applied Arts, Printing, Publishing & Packaging Sector, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt) sets out to establish an up-to-date, multi-parameter paper & board grades classification methodology, avoiding all the problems involved with the actual classification method based on weight. Also this new methodology should cover all the paper, board & corrugated grades, without any exception or restriction that grammage classification implies.

29 June 2010. All is going according to plan. Following the roofing ceremony on 18 March 2010, installation of the production systems at the new Druckzentrum Rhein-Main printing centre in Rüsselsheim, Germany, is proceeding apace. A 40 t crane was installed to bring the components of the printing press into position. The crane will be removed when the work is completed. The Wifag is scheduled to be fully assembled by the end of July. Also being installed are the finishing systems in the 140 m-long and d 45 m-wide hall that is attached to the presshall that, despite its size and due to enormous steel girders, manages without disturbing supporting struts. The two chief executive officers, Ulrike Köhler and Michael Rettich, state that the project is running on time; production is scheduled to begin in November. The printing centre is a joint project of Verlagsgruppe Rhein Main (Mainz) and Verlagshaus Südhessen (Darmstadt).

• Link to article and video on the website of the Wiesbadener Kurier

In July, WAN-IFRA, in cooperation with the Faculty of Media at HTWK Leipzig (FH) in Germany, launched a research project focused on “Sustainability in newspaper production.” The planned 18-month project will investigate the ecological and economic sustainability of newspaper production, with the primary goal of developing a reference model to help determine the impact that newspapers have on the environment during their life cycle.

Ronald Weidel, scientific collaborator at HTWK, is in charge of the project at Leipzig, and here is an excerpt of interview with him that will be featured in the upcoming May-June edition of WAN-IFRA Magazine.

• Interview with Ronald Weidel

The first step of any print process standardization project is the standardization of the raw materials used, i.e. paper and ink. Unless these materials are consistently within the standards, it is very difficult to maintain the print process in conformance with ISO 12647-3. For newsink, we have ISO 2846-2:2007. This standard specifies the ink colours and transparency requirements of the newsinks. The research was done by the WAN-IFRA Research and Material Testing Centre (RMTC) in Chennai, India: www.wan-ifra.org/rmtc 
 

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The technology of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is used where large numbers of product identifications have to be performed safely in high speed and large volumes without manual intervention.Trading companies and warehouses as well as department store chains are making use of RFID and drive the further development of this technology.

Since the publication of the IFRA Special Report on “The Use of Radio Frequency Identification in Newspaper Production” we see a constant development of RFID. Components get smaller and device prices drop with growing numbers. Today RFID tags or parts of them can even be produced by special printing techniques (“Printed Electronics”). Time was right to run a real life case study with RFID tagged newsprint paper reels in newspaper printing environment.

The WAN-IFRA Special Report “Paper Reel Management with RFID Technology – A Case Study” (01.2010) was written by Prof Yale T. Herer and Prof Avy Shtub from the Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel, and Assaf Avrahami, CEO of Yedioth Information Technologies (YIT).

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Due to former technical limitations, the existing Ifra barcode (introduced in the early 1980s) mixes identification and information about the reel. At the same time the space for additional information is limited and cannot be exceeded with the existing barcode structure, despite the fact that there is a growing need for adding more information. A new system must serve the needs of up-to-date techniques, workflow demands and future technical requirements.

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