The plate-train now leaving is the 2 am edition for Mannheim...

It’s the press for printing freaks, Harald Blendowski, technical manager at ‘Mannheimer Morgen’ newspaper in Germany, says of his new Colorman autoprint. And apparently the extensive automation has seen the return of something priceless in the daily routine of printing: Stability and tranquility.

Legwork is reduced with a lift platform at the control console for transporting people and plates, and with the APL logistics plate transport system, cassettes are loaded in a soundproof room. Manual readjustment during printing is no longer necessary.

A new control console offers a raft of integrated functions but is easier to operate than before, as there are fewer operating elements and the console guides operators through the production process.

• manroland have reported a number of orders for the autoprint presses: A four-tower Colorman satellite press to be installed next year will replace a 23-year-old press at Finnish daily ‘Kaleva’ as well as freesheets and contract print products. It will cut printing times for the broadsheet by a third.

A Colorman autoprint at Finnish printing and distribution company Alma Manu Oy will simultaneously print three daily newspapers. Managing director Helvi Liukkaala says it will allow the company to print ‘Aamulehti’ in three hours instead of five. And the first of two Colorman autoprint lines being installed in existing pressrooms for Druckhaus Ulm-Oberschwaben is in test production. Two lines – for Ulm and Weingarten, Germany – each consist of two presses, and will eventually replace seven existing presses.