Baldwin Technology has won a major order from Goss Japan to supply the Shenzhen Press Group (known as Shenzhen Daily) with IMPACT blanket cleaning and SD-C spray dampening systems, which are to be fitted to a new double width Goss News Liner press later in the year. The order is the first from a Chinese newspaper for IMPACT, which is already popular within the Chinese commercial web and sheet-fed sectors. “This is a highly significant order for Baldwin in China as it takes a very successful and well established product into a completely new market,” says Hajime Koyama, newspaper sales director at Baldwin Japan. “With the growth in the Chinese newspaper market we anticipate that this will be the first of several orders for IMPACT within this sector. “In addition, there is an increase in the number of printers and publishers that want to take advantage of being able to install multiple press accessory and control equipment from one manufacturer – in this case automatic blanket cleaning and spray dampening. The benefits to printers in terms of cost, compatibility and after sales support are certainly attractive, while there is a general move in China towards greater press automation in order to improve efficiency and print quality.” The Shenzhen Press Group has ordered 96 SD-C spray bars and 96 IMPACT blanket cleaners for its new Goss News Liner, which will be installed at a new factory currently being built in Shenzhen. The newspaper printer has been operating Baldwin spray bars on an existing Goss press for several years and the level to which they improved quality and productivity meant that the Shenzhen Press Group did not hesitate to choose them again for the new press. Baldwin’s spray dampening units are easy to install and maintain and are suitable for a wide range of web offset presses. Benefits include a reduction in ink and water consumption plus greater quality control at press start ups, which results in less wastage and a short payback period. “The Shenzhen Press Group is a long-standing customer and has experienced the effort we dedicate at Baldwin towards after-sales support,” says Hajime Koyama. “The company was keen to install an automatic blanket cleaning system on the new press to improve productivity and operator safety. During its research the Shenzhen Press Group was able to use its existing three-tower Goss to carry out tests of Baldwin cleaning technology against products from other manufacturers. “IMPACT came out well ahead for a number of reasons, the main points being the environmentally friendly nature of the impregnated PREPAC cloth used in the IMPACT system, plus the ease of use and low maintenance of the equipment compared to competitor brush-type blanket cleaning systems.” A growing number of printers and publishers in China, like the Shenzhen Press Group, are installing IMPACT blanket cleaning systems because of environmental issues and the time and cost savings it provides. The handling, storage and disposal of solvents and other hazardous chemicals is an area of increasing concern for printers and the PREPAC cloth eliminates this problem. The Shenzhen Press Group is a major newspaper printer producing a range of daily titles, including the Shenzhen Daily, Shenzhen Economic Daily, the Hong Kong Economic Daily, the Shenzhen Evening News, and the Shenzhen Youth Daily. In addition, the company prints titles for several other Chinese newspaper groups.