The UK's largest independent newspaper publisher, the Midland News Association (MNA), has placed a major order with Goss International for an extensive press refurbishment, upgrade and relocation project. Scheduled to be complete later this year, the project is aimed at optimizing existing equipment to achieve greater resilience in production at MNA's Ketley printing plant, while keeping environmental impact to a minimum.

With the initial stage of the project already underway, a four-high Goss Colorliner press tower has been removed from a press line at West Bromwich and taken to the Goss International facility at Preston, England for refurbishment and component upgrades. On completion of this work, the tower will be added to an existing press line in Ketley and will be installed over a new reelstand. The four-high unit will replace three existing Crabtree units.

Once complete, the modified 670mm-cut-off press will comprise three four-high Goss Colorliner towers and a J2:5:5 folder capable of printing 48 tabloid pages straight and 96 pages collect in full color.

Graeme Clifford, Works & Technical Director, Midland News Association Limited said: "As the publisher of two of the five top-selling regional evening newspapers we were looking at the most cost-effective way of achieving greater resilience in our press room at Ketley, which produces some 1.2 million copies of daily and weekly titles each week."

As part of the refurbishment of the units, new spraybars will be fitted to the re-located tower as well as to the other towers in the enhanced press line. This will deliver greater accuracy of page dampening, contributing to an overall reduction in makeready times and waste. Goss International engineers will also fit new spraybars to three Colorliner towers in another press line at the same facility.

In addition to these quality and efficiency enhancements, Goss International will install a new Fire Suppression system onto the folders in each of the upgraded press lines. Not only safeguarding against fire, this will protect against the potential damage that might be caused in putting out a fire. The system uses high pressure to produce a fine and pure water mist with an average drop size of 50 – 120µm, combining the extinguishing characteristics of water with the penetrative qualities of gases. As a result, fires are suppressed effectively and water discharge is minimal, with no danger to people or the environment.

MNA currently operates three presses at its Ketley site, printing around 60,000 copies daily of leading regional title, Shropshire Star, as well as around 40,000 copies daily of its sister paper and highest selling regional title, Express & Star. In addition, over 500,000 weekly titles, both paid and free are produced there each week.

"We have worked very closely in the past with Goss engineers installing Colorliner towers into all of our press rooms, as well as more recently at Ketley, installing new reelstands and jaw folders specially designed for our unique 670mm cut off," explained Clifford."The concept of this project was that our press room should run seamlessly whilst this project was being carried out, and all the plans are in place from the Goss team to achieve this. Completion of the project will deliver the resilience and flexibility required at Ketley, but also, particularly through the new spraybars, day-to-day cost efficiencies and enhanced quality."

Commenting on the objectives as outlined by MNA, Goss International product and technical sales manager, Richard Grzelczyk, explains: "We are re-using as much existing equipment and systems infrastructure as possible without losing sight of the main goal: a more reliable and more efficient printing system that will continue to serve MNA well for years to come. It gives everyone a good feeling to know that, with a little creativity and investigation, we can find a greener solution with lasting benefits for the business."