Kinna – PressWorks Ink, a subsidiary of Swift Communications, Inc., has contracted DCOS Automation Sweden for a complete drives and controls retrofit on its DGM 440 press. PressWorks Ink prints the Carson City “Nevada Appeal” and the Reno “Gazette-Journal” along with several other weekly, monthly, tabloid, and specialty products.

DCOS will replace the existing six Eurotherm SSD drives with new digital drives. The existing DGM consoles will be replaced with new DCOS consoles that integrate all press functions, ink presetting and remote inking control, dampening, splicers and infeed’s to new touchscreen control. The existing fiber optic loop will be replaced with a new EtherCat star-network with direct communication to each drive.

The drives and controls are supported by DCOS 24/7 remote support. Chris Johnson, Director of Print Manufacturing for Swift Communications adds; “for years we have spent too much time and effort troubleshooting our drive and controls issues. These older systems now have very limited technical support and spare parts availability. We felt the time was right to upgrade to a more modern, supportable platform. The feedback we received from DCOS customers with similar projects gave us the confidence to move forward with them.”

DCOS will also assist in the scavenging of useful spare parts from the old Eurotherm drives and DGM console to be used at another Swift Communications site.

While DCOS has a strong history of drives and controls retrofits in Europe on nearly all types of newspaper presses, this is the most extensive drives and controls project so far in the USA. “Obviously we are very excited to be awarded this project. It will demonstrate all our capabilities as we assist centralized newspaper printers like PressWorks Ink in the long-term performance and supportability of their presses” adds Ron Ehrhardt, Sales Director for DCOS in North and South America. “We now have recent drive, controls, and closed loop automation customers in the USA, and look forward to demonstrating our capabilities to this market.”

The installation will begin in September 2019.