QuadTech's latest products installed on a new gravure press at Cape Town Plant

Sussex, Wisconsin, USA – Paarl Media, the print operations division of printing and manufacturing leader Novus Holdings, announced a landmark investment in seven QuadTech press control solutions – the first QuadTech 100% inspection system sold into the South African market. The purchase includes a number of tools for color, quality and waste management, which have been installed on the company’s newly acquired Cerutti R98X gravure press. The installation, completed in early September 2015, forms part of a new operation at Paarl Media’s Cape Town plant.

Also headquartered in Cape Town, the Novus Holdings Group operates 12 specialized printing plants and two tissue plants across South Africa. The new press controls will join a host of existing QuadTech installations already in place at Paarl Media’s facilities, which comprise three heatset printing presses, three commercial gravure printing presses, and the recently added gravure press for labels and packaging production.

“We have a longstanding relationship with QuadTech and have consistently been impressed by their products, so it was a natural step for the company to select QuadTech’s latest technology for our new packaging operation,” commented Christoff Botha, Group Executive for Heatset Operations at Novus Holdings. “We wanted to ensure that we have the most advanced and reliable equipment installed for our new operations – and QuadTech provides us with this assurance. Our aim is to improve waste management and deliver 100% defect-free material to our customers at all times. As we begin to make use of the new QuadTech equipment, we are extremely confident that it will help us move toward this goal and achieve a level of quality that our clients will be extremely happy with.”

The new lineup features a number of additional technologies designed to minimize material waste by ensuring that customers are provided with color-accurate and defect-free copy. Along with the QuadTech® Waste Management System, installed further down the process line on the Pemco Sheeter, a newly installed waste gate will automatically eject the pre-marked defective material. The new additions also include QuadTech’s Autotron™ 2600 with ClearLogic, an integrated, flexible and cost-efficient inline register control system enabling shorter make-readies with consistent register correcting throughout the print process; the QuadTech 100% Inspection System, which features the industry’s most sophisticated defect analysis across the entire web width at full press speeds; and the QuadTech Web Viewing System, which allows press operators to inspect down to the tiniest detail through superior image magnification and clarity.

Paarl Media’s Cape Town plant will also benefit from advanced color control, with the QuadTech Color Measurement System with SpectralCam™ enabling accurate in-line color measurement for the widest variety of substrates. Additionally, the Autotron system will facilitate tracking and optimization at every key stage in the printing process to ensure the best possible color quality. The complete workflow solution will be managed with the help of QuadTech’s Data Central® for Inspection, which monitors, audits, stores and generates reports of both live and historical data to optimize quality control. Through the addition of the QuadTech workflow system, Paarl Media Cape has reduced wastage and make-ready time, resulting in higher profit margins and providing the assurance that defective material will not reach the customer.

Taking great pride in its after-sales support and local service provision, QuadTech ensured that South African agents, Kamboo Marketing were heavily involved in the installation, commission and training for the project. Heading a local team of experts, Sales Manager Russell Muller commented on their role in the purchase: “As longstanding partners of QuadTech, we are committed to ensuring that their customers receive the best service, and are able to make the most of their fantastic new equipment. Should any problems arise, our skilled technicians will be able to log into the system remotely to identify and resolve the issue, meaning that possible downtime and costs of deploying field technicians are reduced. Our shared passion to save waste and maximize production time is one of the key reasons why our relationship with QuadTech is so productive.”

“The addition of these QuadTech systems will provide a wide range of benefits, not only for us as a company and for our customers, but also in terms of the wider environmental impact,” continued Mr. Botha. “At Paarl Media, we pride ourselves on high quality and environmentally sound printing practices, to ensure all work delivered is of superior quality with the least impact on the environment. We are constantly working to implement the latest technologies across all of our entities. This latest installation is another step toward decreasing waste output and ensuring that our operations are as efficient as possible. We are extremely excited to see the benefits of these QuadTech products realized over the coming months.”