With pressure on to increase productivity following consolidation of print facilities, the concept of the web-based "all in one wash" is gaining popularity with big press users in Europe.

At DRUPA in June, techniweb's Pierre Borot reported on several major installations including two on KBA's waterless Cortina presses.

Waterless pioneer Rodi Rotatiedruck has put the French company's Technocleaner washing units on its four six-tower Cortina presses to make short washes during production, replacing cloth systems which were expensive in terms of downtime, paper waste and consumable costs. Beyond these savings, the new system cleans plates and web leads automatically. "It is a plus for printing quality which is very important for Rodi and their high-quality waterless printing process," Borot says.

The installation follows a visit to L'Imprimerie in Paris, where Le Figaro and Le Monde are printed on ten-tower triple-wide Cortinas.

At De Persgroep in the Netherlands, the system is cleaning blankets, impression cylinders, inking and dampening rollers and web leads on 12 towers of ten-cylinder manroland Colorman satellite units. Borot says the project was an important step in increasing productivity at the site following consolidation of print facilities in the country.

"The press is in four sections and the system allows a global wash at anytime during the production which improves quality and productivity. Maintenance costs are also less than for an earlier brush cleaning systems, with the system making washing of rollers and web leads automatic and safe," he says.

Another Colorman site is Centre France la Montagne, where Technocleaner has been installed on the six-tower press based on nine-cylinder satellites. "The challenge was to make an 'all in one wash' (blankets, impression cylinders and rollers) on the nine-cylinder satellites, making it possible to remove the vacuum cleaning systems that had been on the press. "It was a great opportunity for us to prove the efficiency of the system on nine and ten-cylinder 4/4 satellite unit machines," Borot says.

Having a global wash with only one system per web was a driver for Ouest France, which has now equipped both its new KBA Commander CL lines, allowing free access to the printing units and no maintenance on the system. France's biggest daily changes a large number of pages across its 50 editions, and the system provides an attractive way to change automatically from a narrow web to a wider web with an automatic start-up wash. The same choice has been made on the two-tower CL at Pressedruck in Potsdam Germany with integrated controls for a fully automatic process.

On the Wifag OF 370 and EV 371 presses at Le Telegramme and La Voix du Nord, systems on ten and eight towers have rationalised washing, cleaning blankets, rollers and web leads automatically, with an end of production global wash. This wash is very short, with a low consumption in paper, and it allows to make printers concentrate on other functions than manual washing of the press. Another user is Bruns in Minden, where systems on a recently-installed three-tower EV 371, each integrated with the ABB or Wifag controls.

Pictured: The washing system installed at Ouest France