Goss Press, Post-Press, at Home and Abroad

By: E&P Staff Schurz Communications flagship South Bend (Ind.) Tribune selected Goss International to expand its post-press speed, quality, and zoning capabilities.

The paper will add a shaftless, dual-delivery Goss Magnapak packaging system with 40 stations, along with two Ferag UTR press gripper lines next spring (Goss represents Ferag products in North America). Goss also will install its Omnizone supervisory controls, including downstream controls, and will upgrade an existing NP630 inserter.

The installation illustrates the ability to integrate components from the two manufacturers, according to Goss Sales Vice President Doug Gibson. "The Goss-Ferag combination allows us to present ... more options for customization, plus the advantages of single-vendor integration," Gibson said in a statement.

Tribune preprint ad volume grew from 163 million pieces in 2001 to 188 million in 2004, and it routinely runs 30 to 40 zoning combinations daily with ZIP-code-specific distribution capabilities, according to Tribune Operations Vice President Keith Russell. "The-17-into-1 capacity in dual-delivery mode will triple current output, and the Omnizone controls will significantly improve our ability to monitor bundle quality and control misses," Russell said.

Each Magnapak hopper is individually driven by its own servo motor, allowing automated zoning at full speed. Ferag conveyors accommodate a range of product thicknesses, conveying products individually for controlled, fast delivery.

Goss also announced orders from three European customers for newspaper and commercial printing equipment.

Through its agent, Heidelberg Eastern Europe, Goss received a massive order for newspaper and commercial web press equipment from Latvia's Preses Nams, which was established in 1998 through the privatization of the country's largest state-owned printing plant.

Part of a 30-million-euro expansion, Preses Nams ordered a shaftless Goss Universal 75 press with digital inking and two duplexed Goss M-600 commercial presses for installation in a new facility in Riga.

Already supplying services to other Baltic countries, Western Europe, Russia, and the CIS countries, Preses Nams' new printing complex is expected to be the biggest, most modern in the Baltic states. To be completed next July, it will be one of three sites at which the company and its affiliates publish and print primarily magazines, newspapers, books, and packaging.

Scheduled to ship next march from Goss' plant in Nantes, France, the singlewide, two-around Universal 75 newspaper press will have cut-off and web width suited to a format close to "Nordic" broadsheet and resembling a range of products common in Central and Western Europe, making it ideal for decentralized shorter-run contract printing of major titles.

Comprising four four-high towers, four reelstands and two Goss Universal 2:3:3 jaw folders for production of tabloids and broadsheets, the press is designed for easy operation, product flexibility, and future expansion. Operating with Goss Level 3 press controls incorporating local and remote diagnostics, the Universal will feature Goss DigiRail digital inking for accurate presetting, a high degree of repeatability, and no requirement for calibrating or establishing zero settings. Flexibility is further aided by such folder features as push-button changeover between straight/collect delivery mode, as well as an automated quarterfold module for magazine-size products.

Scheduled to ship at the same time from Goss' plant in Montataire, France, the stacked, duplexed M-600s will each run at 55,000 impressions per hour and were specified with automated color control, Goss Autoplate technology, and Goss Ecocool dryers with integrated remoistening to address potential paper-drying problems.

Norwegian contract newspaper printer Mediatrykk AS, in Bergen, recently refocused its business more toward magazine printing, with the consequent addition of heatset capacity to its four-tower, two-folder Goss Universal 50 press, commissioned in 2000 and used to print three coldest webs and one heatset web.

The changes also allow for heatset sections for contract newspapers printed by Mediatrykk.

An extension to the press will include two more four-high towers and associated reelstands. One tower will be equipped with special spray bars, new control equipment, and chilled oscillating drums to facilitate switching to heatset production. In addition, upgrades to the existing towers and folders, including new web-control guides, will improve print quality.

"The Goss project will double our capability for heatset production, as well as providing extra coldset color pages," Mediatrykk Managing Director Ottar Hummelsund said in a statement.

In Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, newspaper publisher AB Allehanda ordered two four-high Goss Community towers to extend its Goss press. The package includes Europe's first Goss Community N40 folder, which will allow the production of an 88-page tabloid products.

Originally running a Community with seven four-high towers installed in 2001, the publisher added two towers in 2003 to meet rising demand. The additional towers will allow Allehanda to run 11 webs at up to 30,000 copies per hour.

Allehanda Chief Executive Anders Kallstrom said in a statement that "major trends ... point towards more pages as well as sectioning," which the Goss N40 folder will support, for example, by separating Aftonbladet's pink sports edition from other sections. Kallstrom also pointed to demand for more full-color advertising space."

The Community N40 folder will consist of three formers, for production of three tabloid sections of varying sizes. The decision to invest in the N40 folder was made after Anders and his colleagues traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia, to see the first N40 in production.