Web breaks are often caused by newsprint rolls that become wet during delivery, handling and off-site storage. Pressroom workers were using rags to dampen the dried spots as the 40-inch rolls were mounted on reels. The practice, though it sometimes worked, didn’t totally eliminate breaks.

So in 1996, Newsprint Superintendent Chuck Garven and Newsprint Foreman Carl Orzech decided to search the aisles of a builder’s store for a solution. At first, they considered garden hoses but finally opted for more portable two-gallon spray containers.

Staffers place rolls in a large pan and soak the dried edges for six hours with water from the spray containers. The water loosens the damaged rolls, allowing them to be separated and salvaged. The containers let crews wet the roll edge anywhere in the roll-handling area, and the six-hour period gives the water enough time to soak into the newsprint.

The technique has allowed The Plain Dealer’s crew to use 1,200 damaged rolls—some spoiled by water, others by nicks in the center of the newsprint—that otherwise might have caused multiple web breaks. "We were so successful we only had one break on all 1,200 rolls," says Garven.

The new technique saved the The Plain Dealer production time as well as about $700 per roll.

Constance Holloway is a Charlotte, N.C., free-lancer. E-mail, Choll47013@aol.com.

Acknowledging they share a common business but uncommon definitions, publishers and papermakers have decided to develop a glossary to help get their employees on the same page.

Jointly developed by NAA, the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association and the American Forest & Paper Association, the Pressroom & Newsprint Glossary contains definitions of terms used frequently by newspaper production directors, press operators, newsprint sales representatives and paper-machine operators.