Oosterhout – A new Smart Pre-setting feature from QIPC-EAE is delivering on a promise to save an extra 150-200 copies with each press start-up. It’s the latest development from a company already with a strong reputation for giving older presses a new lease of life and turning them into modern machines again.

Start-up savings
Systems form the European specialists – the acronyms stand for Q.I. Press Controls – Engineering Automation Electronics – have been helping optimize performance on both old and new presses for years. Smart Pre-setting is a further application to improve performance of a press without buying new hardware. In addition to the ink keys, Smart Pre-setting also regulates the amount of damp based on self-learning software. “In this way, 150 to 200 copies can easily be saved during start-up,” says director Menno Jansen.

NZME
Auckland-based NZME – which prints the New Zealand Herald and a range of other titles including some for Fairfax Media unit Stuff – is among sites where these savings are already being realized and fine tuning promises more. Production manager Russel Wieck says the Smart Pre-setting software gives them more control over start-ups: “We don’t work with a single press line here and often switch between our three presses. It happens that we run for hours with a number of towers and then suddenly have to add a new, cold tower for the next production. There was a big imbalance between these hot and cold towers at the next start-up. The new software recognizes hot and cold towers and decides on the basis of this how much damp should be added at the next start-up. This makes a big difference.”

Remote
A feature of the Auckland implementation was that it was completed almost entirely remotely, a task made easier by the strong relationship the two have had over many years. “In cooperation with NZME, we did a lot of research into the precise adjustment of the system,” says Menno Jansen. “Fine-tuning such a software package requires a lot of time and energy. Yet it proved possible to do this with their technicians on site and our coordination from the Netherlands. It says a lot about the user-friendliness of the Smart Pre-setting software”. Russel Wieck says the cooperation has been flawless: “The support from QIPC is perfect, with it helping that our night is their day,” he says. “This allows us to have direct contact with QIPC during our production.”

Up-to-date
The result is that the presses in New Zealand continue to compare favourably with more modern machines. “We can now look ahead,” says a satisfied Russel Wieck. “Our press is more than 20 years old, but thanks in part to Smart Pre-setting it is future-proof. This is important in our business. No one else but QIPC is doing much to keep old presses up-to-date”.