April 23, 2007 -- The Herald and Weekly Times Pty Ltd, based in Melbourne, Australia has seen a significant reduction in waste copies since installing the QuadTech Register Guidance System with MultiCam on its six MAN Newsman 40 presses in August 2006. The company - owned by News Ltd - prints The Herald Sun (circulation 590,000), the Sunday Herald Sun (circulation 680,000), The Weekly Times and a host of other local and specialist newspapers, both tabloid and broadsheet, ranging from 12 to 128 pages. The installation of the Register Guidance System with MultiCam has helped streamline the process by which these products are printed. Neil Wood, Production Operations Manager, comments, “Previously, operators manually controlled registration on our presses. The QuadTech equipment has automated that process, allowing the printers to focus on ink film weight and color balance across all pages. The Register Guidance System has introduced new efficiencies to our printing that has reduced both start-up and running waste copies. We have around 300 high-speed reel splices a day and the equipment ensures that register is always corrected and held during these and other points of web tension fluctuation.” The waste copies per press used to average out between 1800 and 2000 during start-up. Now, thanks to the Register Guidance System with MultiCam, the Herald and Weekly Times is regularly hitting its target of 1200 copies, making a huge difference to profit margins as newsprint costs continue to rise. The Register Guidance System with MultiCam also helps the company meet the challenges created by other trends in the newspaper printing industry. Wood elaborates, “The display advertising market is fiercely competitive, and agencies are demanding higher quality reproduction as we compete with the heatset magazine industry. The QuadTech equipment monitors and controls register throughout the entire run, playing a significant role in keeping our advertising customers happy by eliminating blurred images.” QuadTech’s long-standing reputation for reliability was a major factor in The Herald and Weekly News’s decision to invest in the Register Guidance System with MultiCam. Wood concludes, “QuadTech provided valuable onsite technical support and training – during and after installation - to ensure a problem-free project and a firm grounding for the future. With ongoing support always available, we are certain to build on this relationship in the months and years to come.”