So. Carolina Publisher gains Speed and Color from 8-Unit Orient Super

By: E&P Staff An eight-unit, 30,000-copy-per-hour singlewide Orient Super press from Printers House Americas LLC, Roswell, Ga., installed at Waccamaw Publishers, Inc., Conway, S.C., has attracted new business while improving productivity.

"Since we installed the press we have been getting calls from advertisers wanting to reserve space on the color pages," Publisher Steve Robertson said in a statement. "Several have commented about how much better our color reproduction is. In fact, we sold a major contract for color advertising a week after our first run."

Waccamaw also has acquired more commercial work, according to Robertson. "Everybody today wants multiple pages of full color," he said. "In the past we had to turn away some jobs because our old press was not capable of meeting the specs they required."

Replacing an older press that was purchased used, the one-page-around, 21.5-inch cutoff Super Orient comprises four mono units, a four-high tower and an Orient X-Cel 2:2 jaw folder, the first in the U.S. The company now can print up to five webs with up to four broadsheet pages of process color. After installation, TPH personnel stayed on to train operators. An additional week of training is planned during the first 90 days of operation.

Waccamaw Publishers has tripled the amount of four-color process pages available to its advertisers in its three weeklies -- The Horry Independent, The Loris Scene, and the News & Shopper -- and nearly doubled running speed. It also launched The Carolina Forest Chronicle three weeks after the Orient Super was installed. Advertiser support has since driven its expansion to three sections.

With the new press, the News & Shopper tabloid is printed in one 40-page section instead of two, saving about six hours' work. The Horry Independent, a 20-page broadsheet, is printed in three sections instead of four, saving four hours. Printing fewer sections also has reduced inserting work. Waccamaw can print up to eight pages of back-to-back process color in the News & Shopper and four in The Horry Independent. Additional four-color pages are available by using an 'S-wrap' direct-printing technique with color ink in some mono units.

"We installed an imagesetter-to-plate-bender pin-register system," allowing the Orient to achieve fast register and reduce start-up waste, said Pressroom Manager Keevin Beam. "Maintaining better quality and more consistent register throughout the run with the pneumatic tension system is also reducing running waste."

Waccamaw Publishers' Orient Super features motorized register and remote console control, with provision for auto register, automatic operating-side grease lubrication on the tower, solid stainless steel plate and blanket cylinders, and swing-down, lever-keyed ink fountains. Segmented ink blades provide control ink and accurate ink settings. Rollstands use pneumatic powered roll lifts and disk brakes. "Pneumatic web-tension control enhances register and helps provide consistent print quality," Printers House Americas President Al Taber Sr. said.

The X-Cel folder delivers half- and quarter-page folds, is equipped with double nips and air former boards, and can operate at more than 30,000 cph. It also has provision for cross perforation and double parallel folds.

The Orient Super Press is made in India. Printers House Americas maintains a parts depot for all Orient equipment in Canton, Ga.