K&F Upgrades Platerooms

By: E&P Staff K&F International Inc. of Granger, Ind., announced the following purchases and installations of platemaking and registration equipment.

K&F's OEM division is delivering six Auto Plate Feeders for three Kodak Polychrome NewsSetter thermal CTP engines at The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, for two NewsSetters at The Greenville (S.C.) News, and for one at the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo.

Tech Services International of Kennett Square, Pa., will install three loaders at The Oklahoman for its new CTP lines. The Oklahoman and the Daily Journal also ordered additional K&F ProVision V in-line punch benders (the Oklahoman's third). TSI will install K&F conveyors to complete the CTP lines at each site. Tupelo will get two UTM plate conveyors and a cross plate conveyor, allowing for its two NewsSetters to feed plates into the one new ProVision.

K&F's service department installed for The Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain a ProVision V to complete its CTP plate-finishing line, where it finishes 36-inch plates for a MAN Roland Uniset press. An entry conveyor also was installed to transfer plates from the processor to the bender.

Journal Newspapers of Alexandria, Va., ordered a ProVision V, UTM entry conveyor, and a plate stacker from K&F, which will install the bender behind a new Agfa CTP engine in March.

For its three new CTP lines, Indianapolis Publishing Co. purchased a third ProVision V2 in-line punch bender, to be installed this month.

Also this month, a ProVision V2 will go into the News Journal in Mansfield, Ohio, where the order includes a bar-code reader system for plate stacking, a UTM entry plate conveyor to the bender, and a multi-sort plate stacker.

Equipped with modem and network connections, the ProVision V is K&F's top-of-the line punch bender, providing a full history of bender operation, full-screen live vision registration, complete maintenance alarms, history, and remote troubleshooting capability. The V2 provides the same vision-registered plates as the Pro-V, but with reporting, viewing, and communication features as optional upgrades.

The ProVision U in-line punch bender, sold (along with UTM entry conveyor and plate stacker) to Datamation in Selangor, Malaysia, for Star Publications of Shah Alam, Malaysia, is a single-stage punch bender that automatically produces plates for two different types of presses.

Recent buyers of semi-automatic plate punches, plate benders and press registration lockups include: the Greenville News (Vision Bender Model 3 as back-up to its automatic in-line models, CD-H Cross Conveyor, and UTM entry conveyor); the Times Herald in Port Huron, Mich.(Vision Bender Model 3 and 72 slot locks with filler bars for its Goss Urbanite press); The Lufkin (Texas) Daily News (Vision Bender Model-3 and No-Tool Slot Lockups for plate-to-press registration on its Goss Urbanite); and the Republican-American in The Waterbury, Conn. (SAB-30 semi-automatic bender and DPPC Power Plate Punch for doublewide plates).

Semi-automatic punches and benders are stand-alone equipment fed by an operator who pushes a button or moves a lever to activate the functions. The Vision Bender Model 3 incorporates the same Vision system as the ProVision Series.

Agfa Corp. bought a freestanding Edge Punch Bender for the Waukesha (Wis.) Freeman. The EPB-38 registers a plate using three electrical contacts.

Harmsworth Quays Printing, Associated Newspapers' production arm in east London, bought a K&F Video Register Verifier. The VRV-II incorporates two 25X video cameras to verify registration of an image to flat plate location, proper bend-to-bend plate length, and proper punch location and depth. The device speeds locating the source of plate-to-press misregister.

For an Australian customer, K&F's local dealer, GSA, ordered a Power Bender 38 and a DPPC Power Plate Punch.

K&F customized conveyors are being used to reconfigure the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette plate room. The Gazette now runs five plate lines -- two flexo and three letterpress. K&F will retrofit existing overhead and vertical conveyor systems, which feed plates in a twin stream to the press.

In 1998, K&F installed benders and customized conveyor to take plates from a mezzanine near the ceiling and above the folders. The K&F vertical system then delivers the plates down 2-1/2 stories to the pressroom. The system's versatility allowed Pittsburgh to retrofit rather than scrap its system.