newspapers  mailing and distribution 
A thriving tourist and retirement economy, with a seemingly endless real estate boom is helping to drive the Gold Coast which has always been good for local paper, the Gold Coast Bulletin. IN a much publicised investment upgrade, the Gold Coast Bulletin (GCB), a member of the News Ltd family of newspapers, moved to a new print centre and invested in KBA Comet printing technology two years ago.

Boasting massive paginations which have been the envy of many a visiting newspaperman, the GCB was previously printed in six editions, with its massive real estate section requiring an average of nine runs in order to accommodate the four colour requirements of advertisers. In addition, the plant was responsible for producing three weekly editions of the Gold Coast Sun and a number of pre-prints.

Prior to the upgrade, the GCB was running a Goss Urbanite, with nine two high towers and two folders. This configuration could only print 16 pages of four colour at a time, so the production team would regularly do as many as nine runs to get four colour on as many pages as possible in GCB’s real estate section.

From using sixties technology, the GCB print facility made a quantum leap to KBA’s shaftless Comet solution, and now prints six editions of the GCB, five editions of The Sun, six Quest publications plus one monthly edition and five editions of the Northern Daily Telegraph as well as a car guide for the Saturday Daily Telegraph.

The KBA Comet shaftless press consists of nine four-high four-colour towers and is capable of printing a 144-page paper with colour throughout in one run. Two jaw folders are both capable of stitching with a quarter fold unit on folder 20, allowing GCB to print up to 64 A4 pages of A4; it can also glue and trim on that press line which allows the flexibility of printing two products at the same time.

The Comet is fitted with a QuadTech RGVS 5 registration system and a Baldwin Global blanket wash system.

During November, the GCB print centre started printing three editions for the Noosa Journal, as well as four permanent pre-prints a week. “And we’re reader for more jobs as they come our way,” says GCB Print Centre manager, Geoff Austin.

The plant operates 24 hours a day from Sunday night to Saturday morning.
It consumes approximately 350 tonnes of newsprint each week, including 45gsm Tasman Nornews, 52gsm Tasman Norbrite, and 60gsm Startus newsprint.

The production management team set and achieved a goal of reducing waste to below five per cent by the year ending 2005No sooner was this target met, than press supervisors and staff suggested a new target of four per cent waste, which is averaging 4.36 per cent year to date.

At the front end, feeding this huge print capacity, the GCB’s Plate Room is equipped with two Agfa Polaris CTP devises connected to two Hasse plate processors and a Brenseche Vision plate bender, between them capable of producing 160 panorama plates each hour. GCB currently uses more than 12,000 plates each month.

At the other end, in the mailroom, the GCB is equipped with two Ferag MSD-M inserting drums, four unwinding and hopper feed stations, two Rollstream inserting units with four Jet feeders, a winding station, three Multi Stackers with a Kraft wrap and strapping line, a Ferag SNT-U on line trimmer and three dock loaders which are fed by a PKT conveyor driven by a Ferag management system.
So why did the GCB print centre team opt for KBA press power in the print room, and why shaftless?

“The Comet was always going to be a quantum leap for us,” says Austin.

“Our people had limited experience with computer operation and this was a concern at the time. The new press was fully automated and no one on staff had any experience with newer style presses. Training was also a major concern: picking the right people for these positions proved difficult at first as we didn’t have any recognised trainers on staff.”

But initial concerns proved  unfounded, and the new technology from KBA has brought with it many advantages. “Having a shaftless press allows quicker changeovers between runs because the units can be loaded separately,” continues Austin. “A major plus is that when a breakdown occurs, it is a simple procedure to lock out single units avoiding any downtime. We can also split the press to do two jobs at once allowing for increased productivity. The time required to replace a main drive motor is also significantly reduced at just 30 minutes.

“The Comet has performed just as we expected, reliability is also a plus. Most of the press is very accessible for maintenance and repairs; main drive motors are external allowing for quick change overs.

“The KBA installation team were very professional and were easily accessible when extra information was required by the printers; this extended to even helping with the training on different pieces of equipment,” concludes Austin.