Fairfax Media upgrades, relocates Geoman and Uniset newspaper presses from manroland web systems at Ballarat and North Richmond, Austraila, sites, adding new printing tower and new folder, enabling presses to run combined with each other

Aimee Bellah

AUGSBURG, Germany , May 28, 2014 (press release) – Major printservices project in Australia successfully realized

Fairfax Media Limited chose manroland web systems to make its newspaper production fit for the future: The two companies are proud partners in a pioneering restructuring project. During the last year, the newspaper production at two printing sites of the company has been adapted to the new market conditions. The upgraded and relocated presses started to produce end of April 2014.

In June 2014, the Fairfax Media printing sites in Chullora (close to Sydney) and Tullamorine (close to Melbourne) will be closed. The production of the newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review – thanks to manroland web systems` press.update achievements – are already produced at the printing sites in Ballarat and North Richmond since April 2014.

Future oriented upgrades
Both sites are already equipped with UNISET presses from manroland web systems.Requiring the latest technologies and the capacity needed for the higher production volumes, the two companies started a large-scale press.update project. As part of this project four GEOMAN printing towers and one folder from Melbourne were moved to be installed at the printing site in Nth Richmond last year. One of the GEOMAN towers has been equipped with a specially developed turning bar system for a higher page output with the Geoman web combined with the UNISET.

The extension of the UNISET in Ballarat also includes a new reel splicer, a new printing tower & new folder. The GEOMAN tower from Melbourne has been retrofitted for heatset production and now joins the installation in Ballarat. manroland web systems delivered a new dryer, chill rollers & a 2nd specially developed turning bar unit which enables variable web widths for printing „square tabs“ & tabloid products with a variable square formats to be produced.

In combination with a new folder and complex superstructure for the production of both – newspapers and commercial products the heatset web can run in to one of the UNISET folders for mixed heatset and coldset production. An additional quarter fold has been fitted to optimize heatset production at Fairfax Media.

All relocated Geomans were given extensive e-upgrades during the installations as were the existing Unisets to enable the joining of Geoman & Uniset presses running combined with each other.

Continuing this project as Phase 3 which is currently being implemented is a complete GEOMAN press being moved and reconfigured from Melbourne to the Fairfax printing site in Wellington / New Zealand. The GEOMAN has also been given extensive e-upgrades as part of the relocation. 

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