New highly-automated postpress systems from Ferag will help drive productivity at Hannanprint’s new Warwick Farm, Sydney, print centre to peak performance levels the company says.

Parent IPMG announced last August that it would go ahead with the much-discussed project – originally to have been based on gravure print technology – with a $90 million investment scheduled for completion early next year.

A new 96-page manroland heatset press is being installed in July, with  three further presses – two 48-page and one 32-page – to be relocated from the present Alexandria plant in Sydney’s inner south.

Ferag has detailed the postpress technology which it says will take gathering, stitching, trimming and inserting to an industrial level. Included is a UniDrum 440 gatherer-stitcher drum system with automatic PreTronic CV format presetting to enable complete job changes within a few minutes.

The UniDrum is rated at up to 32,000 copies an hour across a wide spectrum of formats and grammages, and will be equipped with six hoppers. Separate sections are merged in the drum, stitched, and then given a three-side trim in a SNT-50 trimming drum.

Ferag’s modular EasySert system will enable up to three supplements to be inserted into the finished product. Finally, two compensating stackers and a palletising system from Segbert will ready the print products for distribution.

Ferag says installation will be complete and production will start by the middle of 2012.

Pictured: The Warwick Farm site