October 23rd 2003 - Norwegian publisher Media Ost Trykk, part of the A-Pressen Group, has placed an order for a new shaftless Goss Universal 50 press system for its printing plant in Lillestrom just 10 minutes from the centre of Oslo, Norway. The new press will replace one of the company's existing German double-width presses while increasing the color capacity at the plant. It will also provide a resource for the rising number of contract printing jobs that the publisher has gained in recent months. Olav Engum, Project Manager at Media Ost Trykk comments, "We've had two double-width presses for a number of years but have a growing need for more and more color which our current presses do not offer. The Goss Universal 50 single-width press provides state of the art printing with very high color capability and meets our exact requirements. This installation will provide us with 100% color - 48 pages - on this press and will handle the bulk of our contract print work in both short and medium run-lengths." In order to accommodate the new press a major extension of the press hall is currently underway. Mr Engum explains, "Extending the building by 15 meters to take into account of the longer press line has required major construction work. We have had to blow up part of the mountain that we are located next to. This is a long job and with the new floor that is required will take around two or three months before we are able to take delivery of the new press." The new Goss Universal press at Media Ost Trykk will consist of 24 units that are configured as 6 four-high towers plus a 1:3:3 jaw folder for the production of both tabloid and broadsheet newspapers. It will also have a quarterfold attachment for the production of magazine type products and a balloon former for the production of two separate products in one production. Six Amal AR75 reelstands have also been ordered as well as Goss' level 3 controls, autogrease lubrication system and the pre-setting of ink keys from the RIP with 'self learning'. The press will have a cut-off of 560mm. To complete the order, PDM's new Twin Turbo© Web Cleaning System will also be installed. Designed to extract the paper dust from the web before it gets to the units, it eliminates the need for frequent cleaning of the blanket enabling many millions of copies to be produced in between cleaning. This will be only the second installation of the system in the world. "We will have the maximum amount of flexibility with our new press," states Mr Engum. "The ability to produce as many different products as possible gives us the best possible situation when we are trying to gain new contracts." Media Ost Trykk currently prints around 20 different titles, ten of which are Media Ost publications, the flagship title being the daily product Romerikes Blad. The other remaining ten products are national publications printed under contract, these include Finans Avisen, Vårt Land and Nationen. Peter Selby, Goss General Sales Manager comments, "We are delighted to have won the order for this important installation in Norway. We have worked with the A-Pressen Group on a number of previous installations but this is the first time that they have ordered a Goss Universal 50 single-width press. As one of the most successful single-width, one-around press systems, the Goss Universal will meet Media Ost Trykk's requirement for both high speed and high quality with the widest flexibility for newspaper and semi commercial products."