Indian delegates experienced
live demonstration of 4x1 DIAMONDSPIRIT-SA
at Mitsubishi plant, Japan
The recent visit to the open house, demonstrating the new Mitsubishi 4x1 DIAMONDSPIRIT-SA web offset press at the manufacturing plants in Japan marked a golden opportunity for the visiting delegates from Indian and Thai newspaper industries. SM Dutt, technical editor,
All About Newspapers recollects the historic trip which the Indian delegates comprising select stalwarts from the country’s leading newspapers made as an unforgettable affair.
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Over the last few years, outstanding economic growth witnessing in a number of Asian countries has resulted in vital changes for the media industry including newspaper publishing. It’s quite a fact that the continent’s media marketplaces have turned into multi-platform news publishing. However, the newspaper itself remains the single largest revenue source for the news publishers and the core of the newspaper brand value. So, in order to maximise profitability and brand value of news publishers, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Printing & Packaging Machinery Ltd has developed the 4x1 DIAMONDSPIRIT-SA (Smart Advancement) through its integration of a broad range of technological capabilities and applications of state-of-the-art technologies.
Visiting delegates
On the occasion of the Open House special press demonstration, Masami Shimizu, president, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Printing & Packaging Machinery Ltd, Mihara, Hiroshima conveyed that 4x1 DIAMONDSPIRIT-SA is the company’s response to the global demand for smaller, compactly designed press, capable to offer better operability. The visiting Indian delegates who attended open house in Mihara apart from touring around four plants, namely, Asahi Shimbun Ebie plant, Itosaki plant, Wadoki plant and Chugoku Shimbun Ohno plant during their three-day exclusive visits included Prasenjit Sarcar, assistant vice president and LVM Kishore, associate vice president, The Times of India; Harish Nagpal, vice president - production & material, Hindustan Times; Bhausaheb Balasaheb Patil, director-technology, Sakal; Neeraj Mahajan, vice president-technical, Pune (corporate), Lokmat; Ravindra Bawaskar, production manager, Akola, Lokmat; Mahesh Mande, production manager, Nasik, Lokmat; Roy Alex, managing director, Newstech India Pvt. Ltd (sales agents) and SM Dutt, technical editor, All About Newspapers.
At Mihara plant, the visiting delegates were given the opportunity to personally view and experience the outstanding and reliable performance of 4x1 DIAMONDSPIRIT-SA. The exclusive demonstration highlighted the technologies that have engineered this high-end Mitsubishi web press such as single-diameter plate and blanket cylinders with contact bearers to make the press compact, as well as the metal-back blankets with mini gaps on plate and blanket cylinders designed perfectly to deliver high print quality and plate cylinder cocking device to achieve fine colour register. Other unique features of the press that impressed the delegates included optimised ink and dampening roller arrangement to reduce power consumption and highly precise web tension control technology to reduce paper waste. “Our commitment to society is expressed in our corporate identity statement – Our technologies, your tomorrow,” remarked Masami Shimizu.
The plant at Chugoku Shimbun Ohno in Hiroshima covers an area of 10,960 sq m and installed 4x2 DIAMONDSTAR of 6 press lines operating since 1995 and Asahi Shimbun Ebie Plant in Osaka has an area of 25,164 sq m where installed the 4x1 DIAMONDSPIRIT 5 press lines running since 2012. The visiting delegates were impressed with on-the-spot printing of newspapers on these high-end presses.
Apart from India, the visiting delegates from Thailand included Paramet Hetrakul, director-production, Daily News; Pairoj Pricha, director, Matichon; Yongyut Nuangsom, vice president-production, Bangkok Post; Sommai Chuenchohor, pre-production manager, Siam Print; Songsith Hovijit, managing director, SM Graphic Center Co Ltd (sales agents).
Journey of development
Exclusively imparted during the demonstration of the new 4x1 DIAMONDSPIRIT-SA included the fact that this sophisticated new web press is designed to help news publishers achieve higher return on their investment. A flashback of the phase-wise developments of this press brought in the market trend and new products of Mitsubishi’s DIAMOND brand which traced back to the 1990s when 4x2 DIAMONDSPACE (75,000 CPH with more colour pages) was introduced, then followed by 4x2 DIAMONDSTAR (90,000 CPH) in the early 2000s before the unpacking of 4x1 DIAMONDSPIRIT (80,000 CPH offering less running cost and improved ROI) in the later part of 2000s. The upgraded 4x1 DIAMONDSPIRIT press has been maintaining the cost saving over the 20 years period in respect of blanket, power, waste paper, plate and newsprint cutoff and can be totaled to US$7 million when compared to the 4x2 model.
Now amongst the foremost benefits of 4x1 DIAMONDSPIRIT SA includes reduced plate consumption, startup waste, power and paper consumptions and most of all, smaller press size. Well, 4x1 DIAMONDSPIRIT-SA is now compact yet robust in design as the height of the press is reduced from 5.6 m to 4.4 m; 1.7 m width to 1.4 m and weight of 45 tonnes earlier to 30 tonnes. So, the height is reduced by 20 percent, 30 percent weight and 20 percent in power consumption.
Landmark installations in India
‘First’ in the long line of ‘firsts’ that Kasturi & Sons Ltd in India has to its credit is the year 2005 installation of 4x1 DIAMONDSPIRIT at its Hyderabad plant. This four-page wide, one page round 4x1 DIAMONDSPIRIT newspaper press with dryer/chiller and 2:2 double rotary folder handles 24-page production with 8 pages in colour heatset at a maximum speed of 80,000 copies/hr to churn the company’s nationally acclaimed newspaper The Hindu, etc. Since then Kasturi & Sons Ltd has adopted 4x1 DIAMONDSPIRIT presses in their remaining plants based in Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru and Kochi.
Latest in the news is that Malayala Manorama has inked a contract with Mitsubishi to adopt 4x1 DIAMONDSPIRIT-SA.
