With its new Cerutti Aurora press up and running, Paarl Media Cape is setting new standards in publication gravure printing in South Africa. This is the second press of its kind to be installed in the world, the first being for Abril’s Sau Paulo plant in South America. It is the most advanced publication gravure press in the world. Printing at an unprecedented 3.5 million A4 pages per hour, it is also the fastest press in South Africa.
Christoff Botha, Executive Director: Western Cape explains: “The combination of Paarl Media Cape’s four Cerutti/KBA presses offers not only speeds in the region of 16m/s, but also great format flexibility and efficiency with an entirely new approach to post press configuration and cylinder loading.
Make-ready is quicker with the Aurora being equipped with a fully automated cylinder transport system from Bauer. This facilitates automatic loading onto the cylinder trolleys. As such, the operator can via the touch of a button, load cylinders automatically from buffer to press. The long term strategy is to fully automate cylinder storage and movement with RF (radio frequency) tracking.
The post press configuration on the Aurora is a departure from the previous approach. “After a thorough evaluation of product/production requirements and technical solutions, it was decided to opt for a total Gammerler solution,” says Botha. “High quality in-line trimming across a broad range of product formats was identified early in the project as one of the focus points. As such, it was decided to opt for a Horizontal Gammerler Log Stacker and Palletizer combination, with an in-line system. This enables us to do high speed trimming across a product range from 4 to 128 pages.”
Technically, the Aurora press has a number of new innovations which are far superior to previous generation presses. Improved designs and fuller automation makes it easier to operate and substantially increases efficiency and environmentally sound to run. “In comparison, the Aurora is much more energy efficient, and a significant reduction in waste, steam and electrical consumption all leads to a smaller carbon footprint,” highlights Botha. To ensure optimum solvent recovery, it was also decided to equip the press with “doctor blade extraction”.
Botha adds: “In the period post commissioning, the system has definitely proven that it is reliable, and can efficiently produce product with minimum set-up time and low wastage, both on setup and running. “
Another first, is the equipping of the press with an enclosed control room with emphasis placed upon safety insofar as noise abatement, ergonomics with full temperature control to eliminate stressors that can impact on operators and leads to a quality monitoring environment. Botha adds: “The Quadtech Autotron Gravure 2200 Register Guidance System monitors colour and controls print quality in a closed loop system to produce the highest quality gravure printing available on the continent.”
This was one of the first projects where Autocad 3D Modelling was employed. “Whilst time consuming during the design phase, it ensured a proper fit-up between components supplied by 3 rd parties and also cut down on construction time and errors,” explains Botha. On average, the installation of a gravure press of this size and complexity takes five to six months with another five to six weeks of commissioning and testing before hand-over to client. In this instance, the task was completed in three months and one week, with the first sellable copy produced on 16th September.
“The new Aurora press offers a few first-offs. The independent frequency control motors per unit ensures registration control on a different level” explains Johan von Wielligh, Operations Director: Western Cape. “This, combined with the new generation New Celio ink viscosity control offers outstanding printing quality. The fully automated cylinder loading system reduces the make ready times substantially, while the higher linear speed and advanced control system offers more copies per hour and less waste at the same time!”
Alan Turner, Paarl Media Cape’s National Sales Manager: Commercial, adds: “The new Aurora Rotogravure press is a giant step forward for publication gravure printing, taking gravure print quality and efficiencies to another level.”
In terms of ensuring the optimal running of the new press, Paarl Media Cape identified training on the onset as one of the critical deliverables. Third party suppliers and OEM’s were requested to provide a “certification of competency” for all personnel giving instruction and training. On completion of training, an assessment was made by the instructors, afore declaring the operator “competent”.
This R150 million investment is the final part of the recapitalisation programme, but the tail end of the R1.5 billion investment in Paarl Media Cape and the R4.5 billion project in the Paarl Media Group.
“We recently acquired the Trudon account for the printing of the yellow pages,” shares Botha. “This was a big step for Trudon in terms of shifting from coldet to publication gravure printing to deliver a higher quality publication for their customers. The new Aurora press is perfect for the efficient production of such high volume publications and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to our clients and the industry as a whole.”
