Vendors Target Efficiency
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From a new insert online-storage system to new conveyor set-ups to a new skid-leveling option, NEXPO'97 offered packaging-center managers the promise of simpler, faster, better. Of particular interest were companies adapting equipment from other industries for newspaper use.
Intralox Inc., Harahan, La., demonstrated a conveyer system that uses plastic-based modular belts. Developed some 25 years ago, the system initially served the seafood industry, then expanded to the meat, poultry, vegetable-processing, beverage and brewery industries, said Ramon Salazar, Interlox market analyst.
But the conveyor equipment is also well-suited to the newspapers, he said. "Ours is a low-tension system and is positively driven with plastic sprockets as opposed to a friction-driven, high-tension system made of rubber....Instead of catastrophic maintenance that rubber systems tend to require when the lacing that joins the rubber belts together comes apart, our system allows for a more scheduled maintenance," Salazar said. Additionally, it's quieter, lighter and more energy-efficient, he claimed.
The first-time NEXPO exhibitor is on a learning curve. "We're finding that newspaper stock is abrasive, but we are adjusting to that with steel split sprockets, abrasion-resistant rods and more robust belting," he said.
Gammerler Corp., Hanover Park, Ill., manufactures rotary trimmers and compensating stackers, traditionally marketed to the commercial-printing industry. The company is courting newspapers, however, as more papers seek commercial-printing jobs.
At the show, Gammerler ran the KL 503 compensating stacker to demonstrate how a specialized stacker can do smaller jobs more neatly than traditional ones. The RS111 Rotary Trimmer was also exhibited; it features a segmented-knife design that can trim 15 million books before sharpening. Newspapers can use it for television books.
Another post-press company, Heidelberg Finishing Systems Inc., demonstrated the LSS900 Line Storage System for the first time in the United States. There are approximately 15 units in operation in Europe, but none here. Each unit can hold 320,000 broadsheet pages, or 10,000 copies of a 32-page supplement.
"The presses can go faster than the inserters, so you need a place to put inserts when you're doing all-live production--to buffer the speed of the press to the downstream system," Heidelberg Director of Newspaper Product Management Paul Stebel explained. The line storage system lets the mailroom automatically store products in a safe, flat stream at full press speed. Pre-printed Sunday sections, for example, can be stored until necessary and then brought out of storage via grippers.
The LSS900 features automatic loading at press speeds, allowing presses to run independent of the mailroom. It automatically unloads according to mailroom demand, feeds inserts at full production speeds and handles products gently to reduce waste.
Safer, easier skid-handling was exhibited by Kansa Corp., Emporia, Kan., which introduced its Skid Load Leveler, a heavy-duty lift with a capacity of 1,200 pounds. The leveler has a table size of 38-by-46 inches. The raised table height is 27 inches, and the lowered table height is 15 inches. It has easy-rolling, large, steel wheels and a foot-operated safety floor lock.
Finally, Ryson International Inc., Newport News, Va., exhibited its new Ryson Spiral Conveyor, designed to facilitate elevation changes in product flow while conserving floor space. It can convey loads up or down and can be used for space-efficient buffer storage.
Rosalind C. Truitt, Presstime staff writer. E-mail,truir@naa.org; phone, (703) 902-1684; fax, (703) 902-1690.