New retrofit order from the U.S. for QIPC – EAE Americas

The QIPC – EAE Americas success story in the newspaper retrofit business continues unbroken. The company has just been chosen by The Kansas City Star in Kansas City, Missouri, to modernise the hardware and software of its EAE press systems as part of a major investment. The Star – which currently belongs to The McClatchy Company, the leading newspaper and Internet publisher – owns 4 KBA Commander web presses, which went into operation in 2006. The presses are arranged in two identical lines and comprise a total of 36 towers and 40 reelstands, as well as 2 single and 2 double folders. They have been equipped from the onset with EAE control consoles and press control systems. 

The web presses operate 365 days a year. Every week, more than 7 million newspapers leave the print shop. In addition to The Kansas City Star, the company also prints The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Wichita Eagle, Topeka Capital Journal, Lawrence Journal World, University Daily Kansan, and various other weekly, monthly, and quarterly publications.

The Kansas City Star is hoping the retrofit project with QIPC – EAE Americas will extend the life of its newspaper web presses, make production more reliable, ensure the systems’ future serviceability, and generate other benefits associated with such an advanced technology. It involves replacing the PC hardware of the 14 EAE control consoles for the web presses, which are getting on in years. Furthermore it involves EAE system PCs with new, more powerful hardware running the latest Windows operating system version and a modern server virtualization platform. The EAE PRINT production planning and preset system and the EAE Info reporting and logging system will likewise be brought up to date and better aligned to the customer’s specific requirements.

Retrofit by the system manufacturer guarantees safety and efficiency

“It was QIPC – EAE Americas who manufactured and supplied the control consoles and the control technology for our presses. They’re more familiar with these systems than any other partner, they’ve got a wealth of experience with retrofits in the newspaper industry, and as we see it they’re the ones best qualified to handle this project. That means less risk for us and lower costs than we might have incurred if we’d awarded the contract to another vendor,” says Randy Waters, Midwest Regional VP Production of The McClatchy Company.

The retrofit will take place in two phases. Phase one will kick off in the first quarter of 2017 with the update of the EAE workflow systems (EAE Print, EAE Info) for all 4 web presses and the PC retrofit for one press. Phase two – the PC retrofits for the three remaining presses – is scheduled for 2018. “Taking account of our printing needs, each project phase can be completed faster with this strategy. What’s more, modernising all of our presses at once would have been something of a risky venture, and we can now split the costs between two annual budgets,” Waters explains. “I can only describe the cooperation with QIPC – EAE Americas as excellent. They’re a partner who understand our requirements, and they presented us with a made-to-measure solution. We’re convinced that QIPC – EAE Americas will also make a very good job of things when it comes to actually implementing the retrofit project.”