The $750,000 order is the first in the world for the water-cooled, high-end QuadCure UV newspaper system, based on technology Baldwin acquired from Nordson (and UK-based Spectral/Wallace Knight) last year.

Fairfax which owns flagship metropolitan daily titles in Sydney and Melbourne and the national ‘Australian Financial Review’, as well as a string of regional, rural and agricultural newspapers, has conventional heatset printing capacity at two Australian sites – in North Richmond (NSW) and the recently upgraded Mandurah (WA).

It had been exploring ways of expanding inhouse capacity to print glossy and enhanced products from the time of its acquisition of Rural Press in 2006, but had been limited by contractual obligations.

Fairfax double-width print sites in Chullora (NSW) – which prints the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ – Federal Capital Press (ACT) and The Age Print Centre in Tullamarine (Victoria) are among prime candidates for the UV technology upgrade. All three have substantial manroland presslines which are underutilised following the advertising downturn and loss of classified advertising to the internet. The high-end equipment is also appropriate to other high-speed presses such as the Uniset lines in North Richmond and Mandurah.

Baldwin has been looking for a pilot newspaper print site to showcase its UV technology since the product’s global launch at IfraExpo last October. Baldwin UV sales director Pat Keogh was a guest at this year’s conference for Australia’s Single Width Users Group, of which Fairfax web printing and logistics chief executive Bob Lockley is chairman.

Baldwin says the deal is expected to lead to further opportunities as printers around the world add flexibility and quality improvement to their production capabilities.

QuadCure is based on its system for sheetfed presses. The company is developing a new aircooled UV curing system to compete in the single-wide newspaper market currently dominated by Prime UV of the USA. A market release at Graph Expo and IfraExpo this northern autumn is planned.

Global sales and marketing vice president Peter Hultberg says Fairfax Media had ordered the UV systems to be installed on existing press installations “to significantly improve print quality and enable use of a wider range of paper qualities”.

President and chief executive Mark Becker says Baldwin has been very pleased with its order growth over recent quarters. “These new UV and other Baldwin product developments enable Baldwin to plan for growth in new segments in the global print markets as well as expanding our technologies for applications outside of traditional print,” he says.

Bob Lockley had not returned GXpress's calls at time of posting.