MAN Roland Brings UV Capabilities to a Coldset Colorman Press at Herold Druck

VIENNA—May 15, 2007—Viennese publisher Herold Druck has become the first newspaper production facility in the world to incorporate UV printing as an integrated part of its production process. MAN Roland brought the versatile ultraviolet/coldset capabilities to the publisher’s pressroom by adding a UV-enabled tower to Herold’s existing Colorman press.

The newly created hybrid UV/coldset web press went on-edition at the end of February, bringing the brilliance of UV color to selected pages of the newspapers and commercial products Herold Druck produces. The system runs at a record-setting pace of 90,000 copies per hour, which translates to a web speed of 37 ft/sec (11.25 m/sec).

The Start of Something Big

“This world’s first UV application by a newspaper publisher is the start of what we believe will be a worldwide trend, and MAN Roland is leading the way,“ says Vince Lapinski, CEO of MAN Roland Inc. “UV printing is a valuable tool that can help newspapers attract more readers and advertisers, while providing a greater range of commercial printing applications.”

In addition to applying more vivid color to the printed page, UV production equips presses to print on a wider variety of stock, including coated and glossy varieties, thanks to its quick drying properties. The process also provides superior ink adhesion and hardening compared to heatset production. And since UV utilizes light rather than heat as its drying activator, paper shrinkage is virtually eliminated. That’s a key consideration when a newspaper is producing hybrid products in which coldset- and UV-printed pages appear in the same publication.

In the Herold installation, a new Colorman tower consisting of two nine-cylinder satellite units was added to the publisher’s existing Colorman press, which had three coldset towers. Two Innocure systems from Eltex-Elektrostatik GmbH, housing two UV lamps each, are positioned between the two UV-enabled printing units.

Saving Space and Energy

UV drying needs less space and consumes less energy than does heatset drying. As the Herold installation demonstrates, existing MAN Roland coldset presses can be updated cost-effectively for UV and hybrid printing to extend a newspaper’s production capabilities.

“With our vast experience applying UV to commercial web and sheetfed operations, MAN Roland is the logical source to which newspapers can turn for UV know-how,” says Lapinski. “The more versatile a press, the busier it will be and the more profits it will create. That’s an important equation for newspapers seeking to expand their businesses and UV is one way MAN Roland offers newspapers the opportunity to compete in today’s ever-changing media market.”

Herold Druck publishes three major newspapers: Die Presse, Wiener Zeitung, and Heute. The company’s array of commercial products ranges from weeklies and free-distribution newspapers to catalogues.