IPMG picks up Australia’s 1st 96-page heatset web
Big, fast and effective, the manroland LITHOMAN is the core technology for the Greenfield Hannanprint site set to open at Warwick Farm next year.
(The announcement of the initial 96-page press was swiftly followed by PMP's purchase of a similar unit for its West Coast operation.)
The IPMG twin 48-page webs that produce 96 pages through eight printing units in a stacked configuration are part of the A$90 million relocation project resulting in a new production site in Western Sydney.
According to Steve Dunwell, managing director of manroland Australasia, Warwick Farm is planned to be one of the most advanced and automated sites in the world. “We are happy to play a major role here and are very confident Hannanprint chose the right strategy,” he says.
Australia’s new LITHOMAN will be one of only a few presses in the world capable of printing 96 pages in one pass. It is the second LITHOMAN in stacked configuration and the first to be operated with the manroland autoprint technology. It is equipped with the AUROSYS fully automatic reel transport and reel store administration system.
Gerd Finkbeiner, CEO of manroland, says the manufacturer has had a great relationship with IPMG since they bought their first LITHOMAN press in 1999. “We are very proud to be associated with the new Warwick Farm site as it will become a showpiece for the entire printing industry on its completion,” he says.
Instead of investing in gravure presses as originally planned, parent company IPMG decided in favour of commercial web offset. This decision was due to assessments of future requirements including run length, the ability to blend other sections produced offset, and that Hannanprint has some of the best trained printers and operators already very familiar with the offset process and LITHOMAN technology.
The new Warwick Farm production site will replace the one in Alexandria, which will be closed by mid 2013 and the property redeveloped. Three web presses will be moved to Warwick Farm within the next 18 months: two 48-page LITHOMAN and a 32-page ROTOMAN in stacked configuration. They will also be upgraded by adding inline density control systems and fully automatic reel-splicers.
Hannanprint is setting up its new plant to be as energy efficient and environmentally sustainable as possible, from air conditioning of all production areas to the heat recovery from press dryers.
Once the new rail line is completed, paper transport will be handled via rail taking the rolling stock directly into the paper store, thus eliminating up to 19 truck movements a day. IPMG does most of the News Limited and Fairfax externally printed newspaper inserted magazines and consumer magazines under long-term contracts.