The four ProLiners give CRE-A the necessary flexibility for the present production and leave many options open for the future.
With the start-up of the cutting edge printing center on the green meadow in front of the Gates of Barcelona, in which approximately 120 staff are employed, CRE-A ushered in a new era in June 2007. The company belonging to Grupo Godo commissioned four new ProLiner inserting systems from Muller Martini in addition to two Wifag printing presses each with production speeds of 85,000 copies per hour. As an investment in the future, these are each equipped with five classic feeders plus a Promo feeder for demanding, small-format supplements.
Many options for the future
At the old production site in the city center, CRE-A had relied, for almost two decades, on inserting machines from another supplier. Production Director Frank Solís names two main reasons for the switch to Muller Martini: “First of all, the ProLiners give us the necessary flexibility for current production levels. And second, they leave many options open for the future."
Current production means for CRE-A that the three dailies appearing in tabloid format, like all Spanish newspapers, "La Vanguardia" (peak circulation on Sundays approximately 350,000 copies), "El Mundo" Deportivo (daily circulation of approx. 100,000 copies), and "Publico" (circulation varying between 30,000 and 60,000 copies) now already regularly contain the maximum of five supplements. In terms of options for the future, Frank Solís mentions the booming supplement business: “Since a Spanish study confirmed the high appreciation of newspaper supplements, their number has grown significantly, and I expect further growth.”
ProLiner flexibly expandable
So it’s very possible that the number of ProLiner feeders will soon increase. The building block model is one of the great strengths of the new Muller Martini insertion system. If the production requirements change, the ProLiner can be expanded by module up to 30 feeders. “This flexible expansion feature,” says Frank Solís, “was a significant reason for our choice of Muller Martini.”
In addition, according to the production director, CRE-A's declared objective in the near future is to produce further newspaper titles besides Publico for other editors in the new printing center in Barcelona – hence the catchword “options for the future.”
Supplements of up to 192 pages
While the commercials printed by heatset are delivered, CRE-A prints the editorial supplements and semi-commercials in-house. That ensures extra use of the printing press’s capacity. Special products, with varying formats of up to 192 pages, are cut in-line, buffered on FlexiRoll and inserted into the newspapers during nightly production between 12:00 and 4:00 am.
The new mailroom equipment allows individual distribution of products from all four folder deliveries, as well as on all four ProLiners, and on all four NewsStack bundlers. “It wasn’t only the ProLiner,” according to Frank Solís, “that convinced us but the entire flexible mailroom concept from Muller Martini.”
High process reliability
The Mailroom Production Control (MPC) renders valuable services in the networking of all the underlying processes in the mailroom. The management system from Muller Martini, which is likewise modular, ensures that all the processes mesh seamlessly. “It provides us,” says Frank Solís, “with a total overview of all the processes and optimum product flow.”
“The process reliability is of the greatest significance to us,” underscores Frank Solís. “That’s why we were sold on the ProLiner system’s new pockets with four grippers. The tabloid products are securely fixed in them. They can be opened without losing control and a “roll in” of the products can thereby be prevented even at the highest of insertion speeds.”
Frank Solís, Production Director at CRE-A (middle), Adolfo Wyss, Chief Executive of Muller Martini Spain (right), and Carlos Barnés Martín, Sales Manager with Muller Martini Spain, in front of one of the four new ProLiner insertion systems.
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The ProLiner insertion system, first presented to the industry at the newspaper trade show IfraExpo 2007 in Vienna, has stirred great interest worldwide among newspaper manufacturers. Within a few months, 20 sales have taken place.
The most cutting-edge materials were used in the development and design of the new machine. The pockets, for example, were manufactured out of high-quality reinforced plastics. The high-tech composite materials, which are also used in the aviation industry and in the Formula 1, not only increase stability but meanwhile reduce noise emissions. Furthermore, they enable a higher degree of integration of the individual components in comparison with the sheet metal building method. Thus, complicated modules can be repaired by replacing an individual piece. And last, but not least, the composite materials also allow for a noticeable reduction in weight, in particular compared to steel.
Composite materials have excellent weight and mechanical characteristics such as stiffness and stability. Since they are corrosion free, and the material characteristics can be optimized for specific uses with fillers, they have a longer life. Wear and tear of these composite materials is significantly less than with metallic materials.
The new pocket generation used with the ProLiner also features a longer life because the composite materials allow for other designs than pockets from conventional materials, such as sheet metal or steel. This allows optimum adjustment of the strength of the materials to the load. | |