Leading Japanese national newspaper printer and publisher Sankei Shimbun has achieved a new record for successful paper reel changes on its Goss Newsliner presses at the company's facility in Hokusetsu, Osaka.

Between April 2010 and March 2011 the four 90,000-copies per hour Goss Newsliner presses achieved 17,024 continuous pastes without a single web break. The streak of successful pastes is now continuing in its second year.

Sankei Shimbun executives attribute the production success to a combination of press performance, highly-skilled staff and an excellent standard of daily press maintenance.

Configured as two five-high and two four-high towers, with one folder and four CT50P reelstands per press line, Sankei Shimbun's Newsliner presses were installed in 2009. They also feature leading Goss technologies such as paper width change capability and DigiRail digital inking on all towers. Following installation, the high color quality of the presses became recognized as the "Sankei color standard", the benchmark for all of the company's printing plants.

According to the company, the combination of Goss DigiRail operating with a QuadTech AccuCam color control system has contributed to quick color matching, without complicated manual color setting. The ink presetting capability of the Goss Newsliner presses routinely reduces start-up waste to less than 150 copies and ensures very stable production with a Delta E less than 3.

Sankei Shimbun produces more than 1.6 million daily copies of national newspapers through eight printing plants.