German press maker manroland has floated the concept of an 18-page newspaper press with the introduction of a new folder for three-around production.

The PFN 35 folder is being pitched for simultaneous printing of “up to three” different editions, delivering a total of 120,000 copies an hour, with the option of a right-angle web turn to add flexibility.

Using double or triple-wide print units, it presents an alternative to the Pressline Services 3V 'triple-cut-off' conversion of four TKS presses at the Columbus Dispatch newspaper in Ohio, USA.... and better utilisation of the maximum web width of existing presses.

Both address the desire for a shorter cut-off as North American publishers opt for narrower page-widths to reduce newsprint costs. At Columbus, the new configuration – now in production for the Dispatch and the neighbouring Gannett Cincinnati title –  delivers three tabloid-sized sections instead of two narrow broadsheets previously.

In an announcement today, manroland shows a sectional view of the three-around PF 35 folder in which one section is split form the downstream product, with the remaining two then separated or delivered together.

manroland Web Systems describes as “a holistic solution for 150 per cent productivity”, the system in which six broadsheet newspaper pages in the web width and three in the circumference are printed in a cylinder revolution… equivalent to 1.44 million pages per hour.

“Up to three different editions can be produced simultaneously, and with deserting even more,” says a statement.

On the press units – as a new installation or retrofit – the concept is similar to that at Columbus, with a single plate is fitted around the cylinder. Slitting and turning the web 90° after the units – a concept pioneered with Goss International’s FPS press – can present a ‘single-width’ web to the new folder, making full use of the original width of the press.

The PFN 35 pin folder has a three-part blade cylinder and a five-part collecting cylinder. The delivery is performed via three copy deliveries with a delivery fan in a continuous shingle-stream. manroland says this makes the extra copies produced manageable with existing mailroom components.

Another option is the use of an off-set former for the ‘deserting’ of copies as well as for the collection, if a larger number of pages is to be produced.

The company is eyeing the North American market, where web width have been reduced on existing machines to lower costs. “Usually however, this creates very high, less reader-friendly newspaper formats,” says a spokesman. “With triple circumference production… the proportions of the ‘golden rule’ are returning.”

It says the concept has been well thought-out, “right up to the details” and relies on know-how from heatset offset with 96-page systems, and their systems for separation of copies for delivery in three continual shingle streams.