HT Media’s Navi Mumbai facility:
the energy saving initiatives add to
an otherwise marvelous layout
manroland’s Regioman commissioned to print a full colour newspaper
On visiting the Navi Mumbai facility of HT Media what one gets the feeling? Brand new 4x1 Regioman web offset in a compact innovative plant layout with maximum use of see-through glass panels, making all the operations visible. A first hand report by AAN.
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y intelligently deploying the resources, desired results can be achieved more feasibly! HT Media has been constantly delivering on this concept. They are focusing on reduced energy consumption and redeployment of resources thus showing their responsible approach towards environmental conservation while not compromising on the need for constant up-gradation for enhancing print quality apart from value addition. Their Navi Mumbai facility has been upgraded with sophisticated state-of-the-art equipment in such a way that it enables them to make their innovative approach truly meaningful.
By launching Hindustan Times with a circulation of over three lakh copies, HT Media ventured in Mumbai five years ago, with four lines of Cityline from Manugraph redeployed from their Noida plant. Last year, they made a bold decision to enhance this print facility by not only installing state-of-the-art Regioman from manroland but also opting for value addition offerings which can help advertisers take advantage with these coming in the form of gate-fold centre-spread, 3-page or 4-page wide, and peel-off labels with message from advertisers on the front page. To handle the high quantum of printed newspapers, a complete state-of-the-art equipment in their mailroom has been acquired from Muller Martini, and to match the requirement of plates in accordance to pagination of day-to-day newspapers, proven CtP equipment from Krause has now been upgraded with Jewel Optics and a high-speed plate punch and bend system from NELA.
With 55” web width and 546mm cut-off providing 160,000 cph on a twin folder output, this double width and single circumference Regioman press includes eight 4 HI towers, a twin folder and lots of add-ons capable of producing 6.5 lakh copies of 32 pages every night. “The machine has balloon formers to ensure that all the pullouts are printed together and inserted online with its H-type printing units, and allows all production variants on vertical web leads for 1/1, 2/2, and 4/4-colour printing,” stated VS Raja, AVP (supply chain), HT Media, who executed this project along with their Mumbai production team led by Krishnendu Bose. This facility is at present a cold-set installation for newspapers but is pre-engineered to print the top sheet in heatset if required in future.
Installed with eight CD-13 reel splicers, and a twin folder with 2:3:3 cylinder geometry and four formers capable of delivering the webs to any of the folders, the machine can produce any pagination from 4 to 64 pages.
Regioman features a ‘tool-less’ plate lockup design and a narrow Gap blanket lockup for metal backed blankets, which provides a larger image area and a better reproduction due to the metal backed blankets. The machine operates with shaftless technology, an undershot ink duct and Turbo dampening system for high quality reproduction. The register is automatically controlled by Quadtech multi-cam system. The reel splicing operates at full speed with easy to use single strip adhesive tapes.
PECOM Press Manager (PPM) with CIP3 interface is yet another important feature of this press. Press-oriented automation through PECOM, part of the printnet family, encompasses all aspects of electronics, electrics, mechanics, and software relating to press. PECOM handles three primary operations essential for successful production: pre-production - including edition planning and scheduling, imposition makeup and run-to-run optimisation; press operation - including automatic presetting, closed loop quality control and diagnostic reporting; and post production - including consumption tracking, efficiency evaluation, and maintenance management.
Talking on the justification of opting Regioman from manroland, Ranjan Garg, vice president, supply chain, HT Media, who was earlier working with The Times of India asserted that Regioman was the most proven amongst the 4 by 1 choices available in the market today. He stated further that the machine was purchased after a careful evaluation and suited the Indian market requirements of low pagination and high print orders. With one plate around and four-page wide plate cylinder as well as a double circumference blanket cylinder, it offers the advantages of both a single width as well as a double width press.
The mailroom for the Regioman has been provided by Muller Martini and was getting stabilised when we visited the site. The equipment looked equally impressive and consists of a NewsGrip-A conveyor system, the stackers, the wrappers, the strappers and the delivery. To complement the whole process the inline Sitech label system can stick machine labels at full machine speeds. The system also is capable of printing online topsheets for bundle identification.
The NewsGrip-A conveyor system is used to take the copies to the mailroom and drop the copies at the desired locations like the check copy shoots, waste dump gates, the stackers and also enable stickers to be pasted on the copies. The system can also handle one copy per gripper as well as two copies per gripper for low pagination products.
The CN-80 stackers receive the copies from the NewsGrip-A conveyors, count the copies as per plan, and layer the copies into the desired bundles. In this installation there are two stackers for each folder ie. four stackers in all.
Each CN-80 stacker line is equipped with Mosca Integra-I film wrapping and cross wrapping unit to finish the bundles into wrapped and strapped bundles for delivery into the dispatch trucks. The Integra-I film-wrapping-cum-cross strapping machine was delivered to HT with the promise of high speed and reliability by Muller Martini. The top sheet printers at HT use thermal printers which are supposed to be more economical and faster than other printers. The labels are printed on the run thus saving a huge effort involved in the manual printing and sorting of top sheet labels.
The operation of the Sitech stick on label system is fun to watch as the labels get stuck on the printed newspapers at full machine speeds. During our visit Muller Martini was conducting trials on the system.
The entire system at HT is so designed that the check copies are delivered in the console room itself and the operator can access the mailroom very quickly.
To network all partial processes in the mailroom and ensure that all these processes interact with each other correctly, HT Media is using the Mailroom Production Control (MPC) system from Muller Martini, which offers very simple data importation and optimal data management. Overall, guaranteeing a continuous workflow, supporting planning and controlling production, enabling efficient use of whole set-up and increasing flexibility in the specific configuration of newspapers and in bundle formation, this system generates the data for individual production analysis and reports as well. The entire system is integrated with the SAP for transfer of data for dispatch of bundles. Muller Martini mailrooms are installed at The Hindu and now at HT.
With two fully automatic LS Jet 300 CtP systems from Krause upgraded with Jewel optics and integrated with high-speed automatic plate bending system the prepress has been spruced up to deliver the right quality of plates for the machine to produce consistent quality. The CIP 3 data generated by the pre-press system is fed into the PEACOM to preset the ink keys so that the make-ready copies are reduced.
HT Media not only insisted on bringing in cutting-edge technologies at this facility but also give equal importance to right sizing and optimum utilisation of the resources, be it energy saving or quality enhancement. The layout of the building has been made to ensure easy connectivity among all equipments, specifically in terms of all the necessary supply points like air-conditioning ducts, compressed air, water, ink, plate delivery, waste management and newsprint supply. Even the spare parts stores are so-closely located which probably take zero time to reach the source in case of an issue.
As per VS Raja, a German firm ‘Libert’ designed the air conditioning system for this plant. It uses energy efficient measures and automation to substantially reduce the running expenses and energy consumption. The system uses fresh air when ever possible to reduce costs. The entire system is so close to the plant that there are virtually no losses.
Also, cleaning area in the new plant is equipped with Turbo-wash unit imported along with the machine and installed just a wall away from the machine. As everything is automatic, you just put the Turbo dampening in it and it will get cleaned automatically without any manual intervention.
Completely automated ink management system from Lincoln can be remotely controlled from the console room itself to facilitate ink of all four colours to reach the respective printing units, a well laid out ink room equipped with base silos of 3,000 litre capacity for each colour has been set up. The system prevents any spilling of ink and maintains regular uninterrupted supply. The top up is done with the use of regular one tonne silos.
“There is significant advantage to HT in terms of reductions plate consumption, manpower, ink consumption, and newsprint wastages with the induction of this press into the Mumbai plant of HT and it also compliments the Colorman press at Greater Noida. This also streamlines the entire operations with one line for HT and a heatset for printing Mint, the financial newspaper of HT Media,” asserted Raja who is also involved in setting up new plants and upgradation of the existing plants at HT.
The plant is expected to deliver high-end products to satisfy the needs of the advertisers as well as the readers and HT Media expects to compete with the best newspapers in the world once this facility stabilises to deliver the desired quality.
