At 11pm on the night of June 15, a world premiere in newspaper printing became reality. The first issue of the Swiss daily ‘Walliser Bote’ to be printed completely digitally rolled out – the result of a collaborative effort from HP, manroland web systems and Mueller Martini.
Thomas Knaier, project manager at manroland web systems, says great teamwork contributed to the realisation of this project. “The total integration of the workflow that consists of an HP T400 Color inkjet press, the format and cut-off variable finishing line FoldLine from manroland web systems and the AlphaLiner inserting system from Mueller Martini, was a ground-breaking project.”
The ‘Walliser Bote’, which averages 24 pages published from Monday to Saturday with a circulation between 22,000 and 32,000 copies, will be produced in tabloid format with postal fold and as a broadsheet product in Berliner format.
Some twelve months ago Mengis Group, the publisher and printer of the ‘Walliser Bote’, started to create a strategy for its production for the next ten years.
Mengis Group owner Nicolas Mengis describes the process: “We had been searching for new ways to print the daily. With regards to the market situation and the development of the circulation of daily newspapers, an investment in a new newspaper press was not considered as a future-proof decision. The easy way for medium sized and small publishers that are regionally oriented is to outsource the newspaper production to a large newspaper printer. But this was not what we wanted. This would have meant drastic and negative influences on our autonomy and flexibility.”
Martin Seematter, managing director of Mengis Druck, takes up the story: “We were looking for the ‘Jack of all Trades’ that could connect newspaper printing and commercial printing. We wanted to run the newspaper press full speed at night and during the day produce commercial orders. A promising technology for solving this dilemma was inkjet based digital printing. Indeed the printing quality can be compared to newspaper web offset printing (if not even better) but none of the existing solutions could match our requirements.”
At this point of the project, a long-term technology partner of Mengis, manroland web systems, came on stage, not with its own printing technology but with a folding and finishing system that complements digital production. “The FoldLine from manroland web systems was very impressive and allows for upgrading to conductor or glued binding at any time. When we saw the FoldLine producing at a printer in Italy, we immediately knew that this was the right solution for us,” says Seematter.
The evaluation process of the printing system was an intense issue. At the end, only one system could meet the requirements – the T400 from HP. Seematter continues: “We only wanted one press for the whole production. We did not want the double-configurations most manufacturers offered. The T400 with a web width of more than one metre and a speed of 183 m/min with four ink modes was the only system that could comply with our target specifications. Now we have a solution that enables us to print more than 20,000 copies of the newspaper with 32 pages in the expected time frame.
“From the beginning we recognised that the investment will only pay for itself if the press can also produce an immense volume of commercial products besides the ‘Walliser Bote’. In the beginning, we are focusing on a capacity of approximately 50% to 60%. About 60% of this capacity will be newspaper printing; the remaining 40% has to be generated from existing commercial orders.”
Mengis Group CEO Harald Burgener says: “For newspaper printing, the new press is a big advance. Theoretically we can constantly produce in four-colour now and the printing quality is not worse than it was before. But there is a difference for commercial orders. In fact, we cannot produce high-class art books on the T400, but many of the products that today are produced on sheetfed presses can be printed on the new press without any problems.“
The new technology is able to produce a variety of products such as personalised mailings or books and brochures with small runs as well as signatures or print products for personalised advertising. By successfully building up new market segments, Mengis Druck is widening its potential from a newspaper printer to a digital printing house for the future.