The
company has installed the QuadTech Register Guidance System with MultiCam on a
nine tower MAN Roland Uniset 75 pressline at the local Ballarat Courier
newspaper production facility.

The
installation marks one of the most extensive retro-fit projects on a single
width pressline in Australia and continues the
successful relationship between QuadTech (supplied and installed by local
agents, Plunkett & Johnson) and the Rural Press newspaper group (now part
of Fairfax Media) of which Ballarat is one of the largest sites.

The
installation is significant, not just because of its size but also because the
site had previously been running another register control system. However, the
demand for more and higher quality colour pages, faster start-ups and reduced
waste prompted the site to investigate upgrading its register control to a more
comprehensive system (the previous system controlled only the top and bottom
cylinders on each tower) capable of managing the entire pressline.

The
resulting choice was the QuadTech Register Guidance System with MultiCam integrated
through the latest Icon platform, enabling the whole pressline to be controlled
from a single console. According to Michael Condon, manager of Rural Press
Printing Ballarat, the QuadTech system was chosen because of its ease of
installation, the back-up service in Australia and its cost
competitiveness. QuadTech already had a history of working with Rural Press on
a number of different sites so the technology, although new, was already
familiar to the operators.

Since its
installation, the QuadTech system has been proven to be directly responsible
for a one per cent reduction in operating waste, a significant amount at such a
large site. Start-ups have been faster with less spoilage, saving both
consumables and time, and productivity has improved as a result of having one
less variable to worry about on the press.

Condon
says, "We certainly noticed a big savings in waste and those savings are worth
a great deal to our bottom line. The QuadTech technology is a much quicker
system. It locks in much faster so the press operators have more time on the
press to get their colour right."

The
MultiCam camera offers a number of benefits over comparable systems such as the
smallest 'white space' requirements on the page, fast searching and tracking of
the dots, and reduced maintenance. The integrated Icon operating platform also
makes it easy to maintain control over the entire system via a single
easy-to-use interface.

In
addition to the six-day-a-week Courier, the site also prints a wide range of
other local and regional newspapers including the Geelong Advertiser, Bendigo
Advertiser and Wimmera Mail-Times, as well as a range coldset commercial and
contract work including the Melbourne Trading Post, Inpress magazine and Beat
magazine. According to Michael Condon, since switching to the QuadTech system,
clients have noticed the difference in quality and have commented on the fact
that pictures appear much sharper.

"Customers
can see their registration holds much better throughout the runs and as a
result we are able to offer the system as a selling point to them," he
commented.

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