A project to fit manroland's PECOM controls and interface on a 12-year-old Goss Headliner Offset press is well underway.
The German manufacturer says the first phase of the project at Star Tribune Media in Minneapolis-St. Paul - replacing the control system installed in 2003 with PECOM - is complete.
A second phase involving a retrofit of two existing folder desks, is scheduled for completion by mid-October.
manroland web systems says the project has been an effort involving "every aspect" of their aftermarket expertise to provide its first PECOM system on a non-manroland brand press.
A new manroland gateway process - the "PECOM umbrella" - has been installed and allows daily testing of the control system, switching between the previous system and PECOM with a push of a button so that there were no interruptions to daily production. This will be used on future phases involving the unit, folder and reelstands sections of the press, to replace the original panels with new ethernet PLC controls.
Operations senior vice president Kevin Desmond says the project will extend the life of the presses "and cement our position as a regional printer well into the future."
New features will improve product quality, and staff have been trained to use PECOM's intuitive user interface and features including Telepresence 24/7 remote service and support.
Star Tribune Media is a locally owned, award-winning media company serving readers in Minnesota and the upper Midwest as well as local and national advertisers. It publishes the seventh-largest Sunday and 12th-largest daily circulation newspapers in the US.