Largest manroland Heatset Press Goes Live, with Postpress Help from Rima-System, Müller Martini

DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY AND ZOFINGEN, SWITZERLAND—June 27, 2013—It was the biggest order for a web offset press signed at drupa 2012. This year the largest heatset press of the world—consisting of two 80p manroland Lithoman IV presses which can run in Duplex mode—is going into production at Kraft-Schlötels in Wassenberg, Germany.

The press will be equipped with a highly modern and innovative postpress, able to match the press performance. It will be realized by the postpress specialists Rima-System and Müller Martini, cooperation partners since summer 2011.

The total width of the two machines (4.5m) is more than the largest rotogravure presses. The large amount of printed paper requires a proven postpress technology with a performance never seen before. In addition, reliable 24/7 production, high flexibility and intelligent back-ups are key requirements for this postpress configuration.

Behind the manroland folder a newly developed single-gripper system from Müller-Martini will pick-up the two shingled streams at 100.000 cph and deliver the products to the finishing area with the Rima-System equipment. The products will then be trimmed, stacked, optionally strapped and finally palletized with four of the proven four-axis robots from Rima-System. The whole configuration is highly accessibility so it can be operated with minimum manning.

Large retail orders, consisting of many locations (drop points with or without plate changes) are controlled by the JOB OPTIMIZER software. The software includes a real-time “pallet execution engine” that ensures that every pallet is automatically built according to the specification for this drop point. It also guarantees that on two-line productions only a single “last” pallet is generated. This is realized by transferring stacks from one bundle line to the other at the end of the run.

The JOB OPTIMIZER software will also be retrofitted on the two existing 72p presses at Kraft-Schlötels which are already equipped with postpress from Rima-System

For Kraft-Schlötels (together with Westend Druck in Essen they form the WKS-Druckholding) this project is part of their strategy to make print and finishing more industrial and cost-effective. To do so they again invested in leading technologies—like the postpress solution from their long-standing technology partner Rima-System.

Source: Rima-System.