NZME updates Ellerslie press controls

NZME Print in Auckland has commissioned Q.I. Press Controls to undertake a complete retrofit of its Goss HT70 press, delivering a 61-camera system to automate not only register and cut-off, but also colour itself using QIPC’s IDS-3D technology.
 
The press, at the company’s Ellerslie premises, dates back to 1995 and comprises 12 four-high towers and three mono units, with three folders. Q.I. Press Controls will install 37 of its mRC-3D cameras for cut-off control, a further 24 IDS-3D cameras for colour and register control, and its IQM quality management system.
 
Q.I. Press Controls fits all cameras with its Aims system for automatic cleaning of the optics. The retrofit will replace a register guidance system installed when the UK-built press was new. Menno Jansen, director at QI Press Controls, recalls that old system as his first large sale, when he worked for the supplier prior to setting up Q.I. Press Controls with Erik van Holten.
 
Jansen says, despite the 24-hour air journey from QIPC’s headquarters in the Netherlands, Ellerslie, its people, and the ‘very interesting’ New Zealand market holds a special place in his heart. He has visited the newspaper print site once a year for the last six years. He says, “I knew that QIPC could deliver a system that would better meet their needs, and on my last visit I even had a service technician go there to explain how we would solve everything.”
 
“I am very pleased therefore, that after all that effort, NZME Print has chosen to do business with us. To be able to install our modern IDS-3D and mRC-3D systems makes it a very special order for me personally.”
 
NZME has also opted for QIPC’s IQM analysis and management information system, which uses metadata to analyse the quality of the printed product and provide insights into future use. NZME aims to raise the efficiency levels of the pressroom through reduced waste, set-up time and resource.
 
Q.I. Press Controls describes the situation as the classic scenario of the grand old press installed when print was king – and primarily to print a single flagship title – turned in a post- consolidation industry to produce a variety of publications with greater demands and shorter runs.
 
Installed to print the daily New Zealand Herald for then owners Wilson & Horton, the double-width Goss press now prints a variety of other work including dailies the Bay of Plenty Times and The Northern Advocate alongside contract work for Fairfax New Zealand.
 
The Fairfax work includes 30,000 circulation daily Waikato Times, 25,000 Sunday News and about 55,000 copies of the national Sunday Star Times – also printed at other Fairfax sites – with these and NZME’s Herald on Sunday produced side-by-side and to the same production deadlines.
 
While the 2017 print schedule looks different from the 300,000 daily 80-pages-plus broadsheet newspapers the press originally produced, the variety of work has offered extra motivation to the site which prides itself on its culture and its commitment to quality.
 
Russell Wieck, operations manager at NZME Ellerslie, says the efficiency improvements will increase the company’s competitiveness in the newspaper print market. The new technology will enable NZME to source shorter-run commercial work currently not viable for the large double width presses.
 
Wieck says the NZME culture focuses on improvement in quality, waste reduction, timeliness, staff morale, skills or personal growth and the united team goal is to raise the bar at every opportunity.
 
Q.I. Press Controls says its technology will set new standards for both high-volume work and the small-pagination, low volume inline-finished jobs and specialty publications it also handles. Wieck adds, “Beyond these savings and the system’s quality and reliability, there is also the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge that, should problems occur, help from the QIPC service desk is always available.”
 
Last year, Wan-Ifra admitted the Ellerslie plant to the Wan-Ifra International Newspaper Colour Quality Club for a second term. The plant came second in the Panoa print site of the year competition, and featured in the annual Swug NZ print quality awards as well as the Pride In Print Awards.