IFRA

WAN-IFRA: Why did you choose the Commander CT press? Was the Cortina also considered? What are the most important characteristics of this press (Commander CT) for you?

JOSÉ MANUEL LOZANO: We chose the Commander CT after closely studying what the market had to offer. We had given consideration to the Cortina as an excellent solution, and when the possibility arose to obtain the efficiency of the Cortina in combination with the consumables and our experience of the traditional offset process in a new press, the Commander CT, – and with KBA’s warranty – we decided to go for this press, just as we once acted as pioneers with the Comet presses. The most important aspect of the decision was the investment in an advanced press design
that would allow us utmost efficiency in a production environment characterised by continuous edition and publication changes, with the additional difficulty of different formats.

WAN-IFRA: Is your press exclusively used for newspaper printing or do you print other products with it as well?

LOZANO: Since 1997 we have opened our plant also to outside jobs. Today the plant has a capacity of 240 full-colour pages with five folders. We print on average 487 publications per month.

WAN-IFRA: What types of products or publications are these? Is your mailroom equipped for product finishing that goes beyond pure newspaper needs?

LOZANO: We mainly produce newspapers, but because we have stitching and quarter folding possibilities in the press, we also do semi-commercials. In the mailroom, we have a Müller Martini post-press line that allows us to process magazines, brochures and so on.

WAN-IFRA: Something that drew my special attention was a sentence in a KBA press release about your Open House event saying that you have installed your own closed-loop systems for register and density control (by 3TControl). Could you explain a bit how this project came about? Were you not convinced by what the market had to offer?

LOZANO: Our goal has always been a homogeneous quality. When we started looking, there were no solutions on the market that took a global view of the process. Together with 3Tcontrol, we have developed today a single system with as few elements as possible and a lot of software that controls cut-off, register and density as well as correcting fan-out. The system stores all the production data, to the exact second. This allows the detection of all types of problems in real time, while the software facilitates preventive maintenance. This way we have not only achieved a consistent quality with lower waste, but also lowered maintenance and production costs.

WAN-IFRA: How does the automatic density control system function? It is markless, measuring in the image? Are there cameras installed (fixed or moving across the web)?

LOZANO: It’s a system with invisible marks that uses a moving camera per web which allows the control of all the production parameters. The non- existence of marks and its flexibility to adapt to the needs of the printer are its best features.

WAN-IFRA: Does the system control the density automatically right from the beginning, when the press starts up, or does it take over control after the start-up phase? If you use it right from the start, how long does it take to reach good and consistent colours?

LOZANO: The density is measured from the very beginning (with clean blankets) and this allowed us to improve our start-up curves as we adapted them to what really happens with the changes in speed. Being able to measure the density in this phase has allowed us to improve the make-ready and waste figures. Since its installation we have been able to reduce waste by 23% thanks to the system.

WAN-IFRA: Are you happy with the results, the printing quality of the press and the effectiveness of the closed-loop control systems?

LOZANO: Very happy because we were able to maintain and improve our quality, and because of the total waste reduction by 40% as well as the improvement in the costs for preventive maintenance that is now carried out only when it is really necessary.

WAN-IFRA: How does the automatic plate-change in combination with the automatic closed-loop control systems and other automative features influence your make-ready times?

LOZANO: With so many publications and the production changes that this implies, the automated processes have resulted in a 30% capacity increase for our press. If this were not the case, we would have had to increase the number of printing couples, which would have made it more difficult to obtain a consistent quality. The reduction of preparation time meant more favourable start-up times for our customers and the possibility for them to increase their production.

WAN-IFRA: Do you need fewer personnel with the new press? How many people are running the newspaper production?

LOZANO: To run the Commander CT in full production needs three people plus the support of one part-timer who works also for another section.