Horton, which is said to be Australasia’s largest independent cold-set web printer, is adding UV capabilities to the press hall at the facilities of recent acquisition Business Media Press (BMP) in East Tamaki, Auckland.
Horton bought out rival BMP in May and has ploughed around NZ$500,000 to fit a Prime Systems Optimum Series air-cooled UV curing unit for the newspaper press.
The unit is equipped with a balanced air extractor to maintain a positive air system and extract heat and VOCs from the lamps.
It is being fitted to one of the press’s five four-high towers, which features two mono units, one three-colour unit and QI automatic colour registration.
Horton Media chief executive Matthew Horton said the investment would enable newspaper customers to “hybridise” their publications for the first time by running both gloss and uncoated stocks.
“Ever since we established Horton Media in 1995, I and our customers have wanted to have the ability to print on gloss paper, which of course you can’t do as a coldset printer,” he told ProPrint.
“This system allows us to effectively cure UV inks onto any form of substrate, but particularly gloss paper. This process really gives us the ability to offer our customers a more effective way to upgrade their publications than has previously been available to them – and of course that gives them the ability to increase their advertising revenues.”
Mr Horton said trials were progressing well.
“Mechanically and chemically, it works brilliantly. The easiest part appears to be the curing process where we’re able to put ink on paper. The difficult parts are finding the right tone curves and screens and some of the issues of dragging glossy paper through the press as opposed to uncoated paper, which are just mechanical issues through the folder and stacker.
“We’re very happy with what we’ve seen so far and confident we will have a very competitive offering,” added Horton.
BMP employs around a dozen staff and provide Horton Media with the capabilities to produce a 64pp tabloid, with 40 pages of colour, eight of which will now be UV.
The UV equipment will run at 30,000 copies per hour, effectively producing an A1 form with colour on both sides.
Horton Media has another plant in Auckland that houses four Goss Community towers and three mono units, capable of producing a 56pp tabloid with 32pp of four-colour in a single pass. It also operates a four-tower Goss Community at its Brisbane plant.
Pictured: Horton Media chairman Michael Horton (credit: Business to Business)
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