Goss has launched an upgrade for the M-600 press to support the press model’s competitive edge in color control and eliminate potential obsolescence issues. Now the standard on all new M-600 press installations, the benefits of Omnicolor II press controls include start-up waste lowered by anything from 20 up to 50 percent as well as significant reductions in turnaround time.

The new features of the Omnicolor II upgrade are purpose-designed to achieve a more automated process to support the press operator. The ability to automate press setting direct from CIP3 data is a key area that reduces a three-stage process down to a single step, resulting in less waiting time and eliminating error potential.

The significant waste reduction is enabled by a range of system improvements, including:

• Accurate pre-setting of the ink keys via the pre-press interface (CIP3 file)
• Quicker reaction of the ink keys and repetitive positioning
• Ability to move all ink keys simultaneously;
• Ink and paper selection – up to 10 papers and inks, to optimize the presetting
• New functionality such as Ink Tracking and Color Boost, enables the fastest possible process to achieve good copies.
• Auto learning – by saving all running job settings, the Omnicolor will, job after job, fine tune the presetting by taking into account ink, paper and coverage specifications for optimum results.

Following a one-day press audit, Goss engineers require full press access for between two and four days to install the low-investment upgrade on existing M-600 systems.

Underpinning the Omnicolor II development are latest-generation hardware components of the Goss Omnicon controls system proven for controlling production on even the largest commercial press systems, such as the 96-page Sunday 5000 presses installed at Polestar, UK. In sharing this technology, Omnicolor II benefits from latest measures in preventative obsolescence, hard disk reliability and wide-ranging connectivity, such as via VPN. M-600 users can now also enjoy easier operation via a large touchscreen display and HMI software, as well as systems architecture and connectivity designed specifically for modern, industrialized production.

To help customers evaluate the potential gains from an Omnicolor II upgrade, Goss is using an ROI calculator to provide individualized expected savings.

“Customers can see the potential pay-off, whatever their current production model may be,” comments Rutger Jansen, head of customer service, Goss International Europe. “Together, we plot in their average number of jobs and current makeready figures against the investment cost and the new figures they can reliably expect. I can’t claim that the calculation methodology is groundbreaking, but it certainly helps convince our customers that the Omnicolor II upgrade is.”