KINNA – Senner Medien GmbH & Co. KG, located in Nürtingen in southern part of Germany placed an order with DCOS at WPE 2013 for a compete retrofit of the drive system and PECOM control system on its GEOMAN press. Following a viability study of the press, confirming the press being in good mechanical condition, Senner Medien came to the decision to prolong the life time of its manroland press by a complete electrical retrofit.  

The press, which was originally installed in 1996 and extended in year 2000, consists of two GEOMAN towers, one Folder and two MEG reelstands. A reestand retrofit was also part of the scope. After a careful selection process Senner Medien decided to place the order in favor of DCOS Sweden AB.

Markus Krichenbauer, CEO of Senner Druckhaus, has been closely involved in the project; “With the IT & technology background I have, it´s been interesting for me to see a nearly 20 year old press undergo such a huge makeover. Most of the existing control system components were obsolete and it was hard to support the systems, we simply had to address this situation in order to secure our future production capability. That investment being a necessity, it´s the added automation that really made a difference for us.

Based on the findings in the viability study, it became obvious to Senner Druckhaus that in order to remain competitive and ensure future profitability the press needed more automation. DCOS Inspection System with closed-loop color, register, fan-out and cut-off became the best fit for Senner Druckhaus.

“Our Quality Standards are probably very high for a coldset printer. We have some products that are very color sensitive and we do a lot of multi-fold book work that really puts the cut-off system to a test. With the closed-loop systems this all becomes an automated task and our operators can focus on other things. And last but not least, we have seen our waste levels drop well below our targets for the investment”, Markus Krichenbauer continues.

Two new integrated DCOS control desks, new control system, and the Inspection system were installed in parallel with the existing PECOM system and the retrofit was carried out function by function until the complete PECOM system was taken out.

Mattias Andersson, CEO DCOS: “Retrofitting these old generations of PECOM where everything is obsolete has its challenges. But we are amazed about the productivity we see in this press today, I´m convinced this is the most productive GEOMAN of its generation and I believe it’s a combination of a very stable and robust press model, modernized with the latest technology.”