Even better quality for the products of the Athesia Group: the company has ordered a manroland COLORMAN, XXL for its plant in Bolzano. From August 2012, the high-performance newspaper press will support and expand the production of this renowned media group in South Tyrol. Athesia already has a UNIMAN with dryer, an OCTOMAN, and several sheetfed presses.

The new COLORMAN will be mainly used to print the “Dolomiten” (“Dolomite Alps”), a daily newspaper with an average circulation of around 60,000 copies. 130 years after it was founded in 1882 as “Der Tiroler” (“The Tyrolean”), ultra-modern printing technology will be introduced to produce this long-standing paper. With greater capacity and less paper waste, the COLORMAN provides higher production efficiency. The Berliner format press will initially be equipped with two reel splicers, two satellite printing towers, and one folder, and will be installed on one level to simplify operation. PPL (PowerPlateLoading) ensures fast plate changing, and an upgrade to an autoprint line with the fully-automated APL (AutomaticPlateLoading) system is possible. Furthermore, the COLORMAN can be extended with one more printing tower, one more folder, and a dryer, to replace the UNIMAN. The UNIMAN is still running in three shifts at present and shall continue printing heatset jobs for the time being.

Satellite technology convinces Athesia
“We have enjoyed a trustful business relationship with manroland for many years,” says Dr. Michel Ebner, President of Athesia Druck. “Nevertheless, we intensively evaluated the alternatives before making our decision, but chose manroland once again. We were convinced of the economic advantages of the satellite concept.” Bernhard Kuchenbaur, Regional Sales Manager at manroland, says: “We are delighted with this renewed expression of trust in our long-standing partnership. Plate changing with our PPL system e. g. will enable Athesia to produce economically and in top quality, including the very short runs they are often faced with.”