The Advance Word on Advanced Presses

Defining cutting-edge technology—shaftless, single-fluid, keyless and digital—is one thing. Deciding whether it’s right for your operation is another.

by Christopher J. Feola

It’s enough to send you looking for shelter. The reporters are discussing Monica’s relationship with a presidential cigar. The pre-press folks are decoding digital ads. The circulation people are “data mining,” whatever that is.

But you can always stroll back to the pressroom, to the smell of the ink and the rumble in the floor. There stand the presses, tons of metal webbed with newsprint standing three stories high, immutable as mountains. Right?

Actually, no. Press technology has recently become a hotbed of innovation. The people who make presses—and the people who use them—are excited. Keyless. Shaftless. Single-fluid lithography. Digital. Listen:

“We think single fluid is going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread,” says Al Sheng, senior vice president and chief technical officer of Goss Graphic Systems, Westmont, Ill.

Sliced bread? Now that’s excitement. But defining such innovations is only the beginning. Unlike stock dictionary entries, cutting-edge pressroom technologies rarely offer definitive answers, particularly as pioneering newspapers strive to put theory into practice.

Shaftless (adj.) A press technology that works by placing an electronic motor on each unit, printing couple, or pair of printing couples. These motors are synchronized electronically; consequently no horizontal drive shaft is necessary.

Never has a press technology moved so quickly from concept to widespread acceptance. That may be a slight exaggeration—shaftless printing was actually conceived in the 1970s, though the cost and limitations of the computers needed to synchronize a pressful of drive motors kept it on the drawing boards until just a few years ago. But scan the list of recent newspaper-press acquisitions—from Appleton to Wentachee—and it’s hard to find a new press that isn’t shaftless.

“Soon—two-to-three years—all new press orders will be shaftless,” predicts Steven B. Strout, Thomson Newspapers Inc.’s vice president of technology and chief technology officer.

According to Strout, Thomson has switched to buying shaftless—including three MAN Roland Inc. presses slated for strategic-marketing groups in Louisiana and Wisconsin (TechNews, September/October 1998, p. 4)—because it offers significantly quicker makeready. Each press unit can be plated individually, instead of having to wait for the entire press to turn over. The presses also offer faster register and up to 7 percent less power consumption.

And Thomson isn’t alone. KBA-Motter Corp. reports that the majority of its recent press sales, including ones to papers in Bend, Ore.; South Bend, Ind.; Windsor, Ontario; and Dayton, Ohio, are shaftless. The German company also lays claim to the largest shaftless installation in the world at Harmsworth Quays Printing in London, which each day prints 1.4 million copies of the London Daily Mail. “It’s shaftless, gearless and oilless,” says Gary Owen, KBA’s director of marketing and newspaper sales. “I see no advantage whatsoever in shafted presses today, especially given the flexibility in paging and color that virtually every prospect looks for.”

Citing the reduction of makeready times, sectioning flexibility, 4-over-4 color changes and the multitude of possible web leads, MAN Roland Inc., too, “has clearly committed to shaftless technology and the further potential of that technology,” says Sales Project Manager Dieter Rosskopf.

At the heart of shaftless’ benefits is the concept of position matching through electronic synchronization. Goss’ Sheng uses a simple analogy to explain the difference between position matching and the speed matching traditional-drive presses offer: “Think of when you are driving your car on the highway. If you are trying to match speeds with the car ahead, sooner or later you end up on their bumper or far behind. But if you drive beside them, it’s much easier to stay in synch. The way to be able to keep constant distance is position matching.”

Some components of shaftless technology remain universal: “The same reduction in hardware components—i.e., gears and drive shafts—is enjoyed by all,” says Mike Shafer, National Sales Manager of TKS Inc. “How each manufacturer drives the couples or other components can be different. The electronics is another area in which the press companies will differ. Each manufacturer seems to be using its own preferred press-control supplier. There are some proprietary properties on the control-system side. All of the motors require controller cabinets, and their compactness and where they are mounted is also different.” In addition, the number of drive motors in a shaftless press varies by manufacturer, ranging from one motor per tower to one for each unit or printing couple. TKS, for instance, now uses one motor per tower unit, but its next-generation shaftless presses will include one for each couple, according to Shafer.

With numerous installations up and running in Europe and Japan, and a plurality of pressmakers offering the technology, “at this point, the better question would be why anyone would not go shaftless, at least on the horizontal. It is the standard,” says Chuck Blevins of Chuck Blevins & Associates, Vienna, Va.

The answer? Despite performance gains and added flexibility through reversible cylinders and increased web paths, “some customers are still more comfortable with the older systems’ mechanical capabilities,” admits Sheng. “But from a purely technical point of view, it’s hard to come up with an advantage for the shafted press. To Goss, shaftless is no longer an issue. It is almost the norm at this point.”

But Sheng isn’t alone in pointing out that not all papers are comfortable with this new technology. Considering that in the last two years all but one of nine TKS customers opted not to buy shaftless presses, “we think it is best to offer both shafted and shaftless presses,” says Shafer. Among the concerns:

• “Some companies may not feel that they can maintain sophisticated technology, especially in remote or smaller markets,” Shafer says. “It is a more complicated maintenance item that requires more electronic and process-control knowledge.”
• A company uninterested in increased zoning flexibility may opt for traditional, shafted presses, according to Shafer.
• As an add-on to existing presses, “shaftless does not offer many advantages where the addition is for color or page capacity, not flying plate or page changing,” Shafer says. “It only simplifies the installation. If a newspaper elects to buy from another manufacturer, it would be simpler to put brand X towers on the original machine.”

Part of the reluctance, too, may stem from the industry’s traditionally cautious pace. “In the case of new-press purchases, some newspaper executives are still taking a wait-and-see attitude,” he adds. “Let others do the pioneering work—especially in the U.S.A.”

One such pioneer is the Tulsa World, which two years ago made headlines of its own by becoming the first U.S. daily to purchase shaftless presses (from WIFAG Inc.). Today one such press is up and running, though primarily on pre-runs, an executive with the Swiss pressmaker told a recent newspaper conference. WIFAG is now redesigning some components of the press, which is scheduled to be complete by January.

With nearly a dozen U.S. installations expected to follow Tulsa, “In my judgment, shaftless is here to stay,” echoes Frank Balentine, NAA’s press manager.

Keyless (adj.) A press with no controls (keys) for ink adjustment. The basic keyless system uses a ceramic anilox roller with thousands microscopic engraved cells. The roller rotates in an open fountain, allowing the cells to pick up ink and deliver it to the ink form roller. A doctor blade is used to shear the excess ink from the anilox roller. Operators do not have the ability to adjust the ink.

So much for consensus.

With the history of keyless installations ranging from successes to lawsuits, the technology remains open to debate. A key question (no pun intended) is whether improvements in other areas have supplanted the need for keyless systems.

While keyless is working OK in the field, “I don’t see much advantage with keyless offset versus conventional offset. The variables are harder to control, and the composition of the ink is very important,” says NAA’s Balentine. “Most newer presses are equipped with the ability to scan negatives and preset their inking systems. This can accomplish the same advantages as keyless.” Such systems scan negatives to determine the amount of ink necessary for the plate, then transfer the data to the ink-control system, which presets ink keys to the correct density.

Blevins also has reservations. “A good preset system may be as consistent as a nonadjustable system,” he says. “The hope that keyless would take a less skilled person to run does not appear to be true.” While keyless has the potential to offer faster startups and more consistent color page to page—“if all works as advertised,” Blevins says—those benefits must be balanced with more demanding prerun work.

“Everyone wants to see a good operation so they can understand all the issues,” he adds.

Goss’ Colorflow positive-feed keyless system provides a good example of the differences from site to site. “Globally, there are more than 10 Colorflow sites,” including ones in Greensburg, Pa., at the Tribune Review; Warrendale, Pa.; The Denver Post; The Miami Herald; and the Orlando Sentinel, according to Sheng. “About half are operating quite well. The other sites are still coming up to speed.”

Goss’ positive-feed technology uses pumps that supply a uniform volume of ink regardless of the amount of water. By contrast, anilox systems rely on the surface tension of fluids, according to Sheng. When their ink-water mixture changes in viscosity, the amount of ink supplied through the ink tray also varies because of changes in surface tension between the fluid and engraved roller, he contends.

“What our system means to the user is a broader, wider window of operation,” says Sheng. “Typically, the system only operates with less than 20 percent water in ink. Goss will operate with up to 25 percent water—maybe higher. Both systems require inks that readily emulsify with water. If it won’t emulsify, you get uneven and blotchy printing.”

Sounds good in theory; how’s it working in practice? Joseph Bowman, vice president of operations of The Miami Herald, says staffers are still trying to optimize printing on three positive-feed keyless presses installed over the past year and a half. “We have had some difficulty controlling water as well as achieving and maintaining ink density on color,” he says. “Goss is making modifications to our dampening system and ink train to help stabilize the density fluctuations.”

Other installations have been even less successful. Frustrated by the first-ever application of Colorflow technology on its Goss Newsliner presses, the Daily News of New York filed a $62 million fraud and breach-of-contract suit against the press maker. The paper’s attorneys argued that Goss misrepresented the state of the technology and that the presses malfunctioned routinely. A New York State Supreme Court judge dismissed the case this summer; Goss maintained in court documents that it continues working to improve operations at the Daily News.

“In the field, [papers] are still going through a learning process,” says Sheng. “Keyless printing is very different. In conventional printing, you can chase ink with water and water with ink. If it is not in balance, you can jack up the water to compensate for ink, then ink to compensate for water. You can’t do that with keyless. Water is the enemy of keyless. If you really jack up the water for whatever reason, the system will break down. Old habits are something we are wrestling with.”

Press makers continue touting keyless’ benefits. KBA’s Owen notes that four of the nine U.S. members of the NAA/IFRA Color Quality Club (see p. 27) are keyless.

“It depends on the individual market,” Sheng says. “Remove the ink keys, and maybe you don’t need someone to set them. But that’s a big maybe. The modern day raster-image processor interfaces are getting closer to keyless in efficiency.”

Global orders for keyless presses have captured a 7 percent market share since 1990—“with a reducing trend, in particular in Western Europe,” notes MAN Roland’s Rosskopf. “From our point of view, keyless offset printing technology continues to present significant limitations. The positive aspects of the keyless offset technology will be achieved by a harmonization of pre-press, printing materials and the printing-press equipment,” he says. MAN Roland, however, does offer anilox short-train offset technology in stacked blanket-to-blanket arch and H-type unit configurations, both shaftless and shafted, according to Rosskopf.

TKS developed another variation on positive-feed keyless inking, featuring a gearless, digital ink pump using independent stepper motors as well as conventional inking and inks, according to Shafer. In use at Newsday in Melville, N.Y., the system transfers ink from a porous roller to the ink fountain and up the ink train. The ink film is doctored in a way that can vary the amount of ink being supplied, according to Shafer.

“If the color separations, dampening system and unit mechanics are in sync, keyless is as good as conventional,” he says. “From this viewpoint it is a great labor-saving feature. There are also the other common benefits: no ink pre-setting needed, no ink-pack maintenance, consistent ink settings and no operator intervention.”

With less than a dozen keyless operations in the United States, many industry watchers retain a healthy skepticism. “I would say that, based on what is running right now in the United States, this is not yet a proven inking system,” Shafer says. “Until the print quality consistently matches conventional and you can use standard inks, there is still room for improvement.”

Single Fluid (adj.) Single-fluid lithography and its cousin, waterless offset, have the same goals: reduce newsprint waste by eliminating the need to balance ink and water on the press. Single fluid does this by feeding a pre-mixed ink-and-water solution, while waterless does it by using a special tacky ink.

Now we go from consensus to equivocation to “Can’t we all just get along?” Unproven in offset newspaper printing save for one decade-long experiment, proponents and detractors disagree on even the technology’s basic feasibility.

Consider Goss’ Sheng (again): “We think single fluid is going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.”

The contrary view, from Blevins: “I do not think this is worth discussion at this time. There’s nothing to see and no reason to believe it will be ready for prime time on newspaper presses. They do not even suggest it can run at high speed in the future.”

While much of the discussion surrounding single fluid seems steeped in theory, it bears repeating that the technology was actually used by a metro daily. From 1979 to 1988, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel experimented with a single-fluid process in which staffers fed a premixed solution directly to the press. They found the ink-water balance difficult to monitor as runs progressed, and the solution didn’t perform well in demanding inking solutions, such as when a page included both light and dark areas (TechNews, January/February 1995, p. 21).

But Goss, which is currently experimenting with single-fluid lithography on its ADOPT/CP (Advanced Digital Offset Printing Technologies Concept Press), sees the technology as having real advantages, even in present-day operations. The difference? Positive-feed keyless, which has the potential to tweak the ink-water balance during the course of a press run.

“The benefits are really tremendous,” Sheng says. Chief among them is the elimination of the dampening system, which has always been a compromise between print quality and press maintenance, he adds. Among other benefits:

• Single-fluid allows extremely even distribution of water.
• Print quality is enhanced.
• Startup is even faster than in keyless inking.

The ADOPT prototype features an inking system that meters a continuous ink-water emulsion layer, which is monitored and replenished to ensure that the ink’s water content remains constant. “We are very successful in our progress in the laboratory and hope to start beta testing next year,” Sheng says.

While keyless systems typically use ink with water content ranging between 20 and 25 percent, Sheng says it will require between 30 and 40 percent water content to eliminate offset’s dampening system. With single-fluid, however, the ink and water must be emulsified together. “How do we do that?” Sheng asks. “We added a piece of gear like an eggbeater.”

Digital (adj.) Presses that turn electronic output such as PostScript files directly into paper images without the usual intervening steps of negatives and plates. The technology is related to electro-photographic products such as color copiers.

While digital presses have made inroads into commercial printing markets, experts disagree over whether they will ever become a mainstream newspaper press technology.

“They are slow,” says Blevins. “There’s nothing for newspapers at this time, and no one sees the speed necessary for newspapers in the near future.

With little demand for custom news or similar personalization, “newspapers are not asking for the technology,” Blevins adds. “If we could seriously talk about this in the next 10 years for newspapers, I would be surprised.”

Vendors working on digital technologies see more potential, though they, too, remain unsure when newspapers will see real-world applications.

KBA-Motter works with Scitex to link the Israeli firm’s Karat digital press with sheetfed technology. “But we see it moving over to the web side,” Owen says. “You will definitely see continued inroads as the technology becomes more widely accepted.

“South Bend in the mid-’90s was the first to use beltless, which is now standard,” he adds. “Digital will be standard as well.”

MAN Roland sees potential as well, exploring thermotransfer technology as a means to digital changeover. The lithographic approach images a water-accepting metal sleeve, which can literally be wiped clean by an automatic cloth-and-solvent system. Among the benefits, according to Rosskopf:

• The reusable form cylinder reduces material costs.
• It offers print resolutions exceeding 5,000 dots per inch and dot diameters below 0.01 millimeters.
• The material requires relatively little laser energy, permitting fast imaging.

Goss, meanwhile, unveiled its ADOPT press at a trade show last year. Along with digitally imaged, erasable printing cylinders, the press features variable cut-offs, single-fluid lithography, shaftless and gearless printing drives, and gapless image and blanket cylinders.

The digital-printing component uses lasers to etch an erasable copper image onto the nickel-crystal coated imaging cylinder. After the press run, the copper bits comprising the image areas return to a special imaging solution to be reused.

A production digital press is planned for Drupa 2000, though Goss officials admit the first model won’t be newspaper-sized. But other technologies on the ADOPT press, such as single-fluid lithography, will find their way into newspaper presses sooner, officials say.

Plug and play (computer jargon) Describes the ability to seamlessly integrate a new piece of hardware or software into an existing network or work flow. Considered by many a contradiction in terms.

Plug and play is a term more commonly used in the pre-press world—and even there, workers often use their fingers to sarcastically place quotation marks around the term.

Anyone who’s survived a press installation knows there’s no such thing as a painless transition. But these new technologies will require an unprecedented amount of preparation outside the pressroom, and, in some cases, revamping huge chunks of the pre-press process itself. Among them:

• Digital pre-press. That means more than just pagination. If you’re going to think about digital printing (or even computer-to-plate as an interim step), you can’t simply plan on stripping in last-minute display ads.
• Integrated manufacturing and production management of pre-press, press and post-press
• Standardization across departments
• “Finishing on demand,” meaning makeready and production characteristics compatible with pre-press and press inline registration
• “Just in time” production
• And perhaps the biggest concern of all: “the integration and networking of all digital work steps,” cautions Rosskopf.

Which, in most U.S. newspaper operations, means that press personnel won’t be the only folks turning to their dictionaries to learn about new technologies.

Christopher J. Feola is director of the Media Center at the American Press Institute. E-mail, cjf@mediacenter.org; phone, (703) 715-3333.

Sources

• Frank Balentine, NAA, 1921 Gallows Road, Suite 600, Vienna, Va. 22182. E-mail, balef@naa.org; phone, (703) 902-1849.
• Chuck Blevins, Chuck Blevins & Associates, 1617 Montmorency Drive, Vienna, Va. 22182. E-mail, CRBlevins@aol.com; phone, (703) 883-2200; fax, (703) 242-7712.
• Joseph Bowman, The Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla. 33132. E-mail, jbowman@herald.com; phone, (305) 350-2111.
• Gary Owen, KBA-Motter Corp., 3900 E. Market St., York, Pa. 17402. E-mail, Goontheweb@aol.com; phone (717) 755-1071.
• Dieter Rosskopf, MAN Roland Inc., 800 E. Oak Hill Drive, Westmont, Ill. 60559. E-mail, Dieter_Rosskopf@armail1.mra.mam.de; phone, (630)920-3587.
• Mike Shafer, TKS Inc., 1201 Commerce Drive, Richardson, Texas 75081. E-mail, bhapi@swbell.net; phone, (972) 437-4466.
• Al Sheng, Goss Graphic Systems, 700 Oakmont Lane, Westmont, Ill. 60559, (630) 850-5600.
• Steven B. Strout, Thomson Newspapers Inc., 208 Harbor Drive, 3rd floor, Stamford, Conn. 06902. E-mail, Steve.Strout@thomnews.com; phone, (203) 425-2521.

TechNews Volume 4, Number 6: November/December 1998

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