Oosterhout, October 2018
– A new Smart Pre-setting
feature from QIPC-EAE is delivering on a promise to save an extra 150-200
copies with each press start-up. It’s the latest development from a company
already with a strong reputation for giving older presses a new lease of life
and turning them into modern machines again.
Start-up savings
Systems form the European
specialists – the acronyms stand for Q.I. Press Controls – Engineering
Automation Electronics – have been helping optimize performance on both old and
new presses for years. Smart Pre-setting is a further application to improve
performance of a press without buying new hardware. In addition to the ink
keys, Smart Pre-setting also regulates the amount of damp based on
self-learning software. “In this way, 150 to 200 copies can easily be saved
during start-up,” says director Menno Jansen.
NZME
Auckland-based NZME – which
prints the New Zealand Herald and a range of other titles including some for
Fairfax Media unit Stuff – is among sites where these savings are already being
realized and fine tuning promises more. Production manager Russell Wieck says the
Smart Pre-setting software gives them more control over start-ups: “We don’t
work with a single press line here and often switch between our three presses.
It happens that we run for hours with a number of towers and then suddenly have
to add a new, cold tower for the next production. There was a big imbalance
between these hot and cold towers at the next start-up. The new software
recognizes hot and cold towers and decides on the basis of this how much damp
should be added at the next start-up. This makes a big difference.”
Remote
A feature of the Auckland
implementation was that it was completed almost entirely remotely, a task made
easier by the strong relationship the two have had over many years. “In
cooperation with NZME, we did a lot of research into the precise adjustment of
the system,” says Menno Jansen. “Fine-tuning such a software package requires a
lot of time and energy. Yet it proved possible to do this with their
technicians on site and our coordination from the Netherlands. It says a lot
about the user-friendliness of the Smart Pre-setting software”. Russell Wieck
says the cooperation has been flawless: “The support from QIPC is perfect, with
it helping that our night is their day,” he says. “This allows us to have
direct contact with QIPC during our production.”
Up-to-date
The result is that the presses
in New Zealand continue to compare favourably with more modern machines. “We
can now look ahead,” says a satisfied Russell Wieck. “Our press is more than 20
years old, but thanks in part to Smart Pre-setting it is future-proof. This is
important in our business. No one else but QIPC is doing much to keep old
presses up-to-date”.
