Spare parts are not easy to find, possibilities of product design are exhausted, and manual work plus laborious data acquisition eat into valuable production time. Does this sound familiar to you? When a press is getting on a bit it’s worthwhile to check out upgrades. By adding new functions, they can meet the demands of today and production processes can be increasingly automated by modern technology. Upgrades enable companies to produce jobs more efficiently at a constant level of quality and thus safeguard the investment in the existing printing system for a longer period.

　　When it’s a matter of adding creative ideas and gaining more flexibility in product design, new printing units for example, stitchers or changing the format of existing presses are the solution. or networking publishing and printing house systems or installing new support and evaluation programs? There are many upgrades that can help older presses to produce more competitively. Deciding on which of the mechanical, electronic or technical upgrades are most beneficial can only be done after intensive examination and analysis of the individual needs of sheetfed, newspaper or commercial web offset printing company. The manroland experts of PRINTVALUE consider a printing company’s current situation, business models and operating environment, and weigh this up against market demands and benefits that innovative technology provides. Investment and Return on Investment (ROI) considerations deliver sound decision-making assistance during planning.

　　Upgrading a press still in production

　　Once the measures for modernizing a press have been decided on, the next step is to draw up a detailed project plan with the objective being to avoid production interruptions as much as possible during the upgrade. This is often a complex task that requires the highest degree of know-how. In the case of the service contract received from Thairath Daily, the highest-circulation daily newspaper in Thailand, which is the largest individual service contract manroland has ever concluded, the remit is to completely overhaul six GEOMAN presslines including renewing the press controls and register control systems. The manroland experts will need around six months for the planning and engineering work. In general after these tasks are attended to, and depending on the size of the project, upgrading can take between three and twelve months. Data backups, parallel installations, intensive test runs and fallback production possibilities must be prepared for in coordination with the printing company’s job commitments that production is safeguarded.

　　Positive effects

　　Depending on the nature of the upgrade, a company will immediately notice some of the following positive effects. The latest technology and modern backup systems make a pressline more reliable which safeguards production, spare parts are readily available, and production processes can be diagnosed better and evaluated faster. The more worksteps that are automated by drive and control technologies and intelligent software, the easier and faster it is to operate the press. Process control systems contribute a lot to constant product quality which in turn leads to satisfied customers. From an overall point of view, upgrades provide more flexibility through increasing a pressline’s availability, performance and degree of utilization, as well as reducing makeready time, waste rates, and production and maintenance costs.

　　Press upgrades

　　Regardless of all the potential benefits of upgrading, it is necessary in the initial planning and analysis phase to also identify the performance and ROI limits of the upgrade concerned compared with an investment in a new press.
Press upgrades can be

　　mechanical and electronic upgrades, such as stitchers, additional ribbons, transport bands and sheet transport, additional printing or inking units, format enlargement/reduction, ergonomical improvements like swiveling transport bands or finger protection spindles, special tools and devices to simplify service and maintenance work.

　　(software-)technical upgrades, such as integration in prepress systems and networks, digitized regulator technology, process control systems, software support for emergencies, dual IT systems for data security, automated drive and control technology, plus press diagnostics.

　　Upgrades provide printing companies with

　　the latest technology aligned with innovations for new presses.
　　more flexible product design through modern functions.
　　more automation and more extensive networking.
　　leaner and faster processes with fewer worksteps.
　　more efficient production with less personnel and reduced production and maintenance costs.
　　plannable maintenance and assured availability of spare parts.
　　higher press utilization and greater reliability.
　　constant product quality and greater customer satisfaction.
　　a longer safeguarded investment period for the existing printing system.
　　competitiveness with the existing printing system until it makes sense to replace it with a new one.

（The manroland experts of PRINTVALUE consider a printing company’s current situation, business models and operating environment, and weigh this up against market demands and benefits that innovative technology provides）

[时间：2008-08-20  作者：曼罗兰  来源：必胜网]