Completion of a ‘biggest ever’ contract to upgrade the manroland presses at Thairath Daily means the Bangkok-based newspaper will always be in tune with the times.

A team of German-based manroland engineers worked over a two-year period to complete a thorough upgrade and overhaul of the publisher’s six Geoman presses under a contract signed at DRUPA 2008.

The complex task was to replace and retrofit all press controls including those for the Megtec reelstands. All presses including reelstands are now equipped with the same new and powerful PECOM controls, ensuring production safety and press reliability for the future.

Further production efficiency comes from the installation of QuadTech’s MultiCam register guidance system in addition to the mechanical upgrade. Benefits include the reduction in make-ready time, waste rates, as well as the production and maintenance costs.

All the work has been completed with minimal interruption of the normal production schedules of the newspaper which is the country’s largest newspaper with a daily circulation of more than a million copies.

The state-of-art printing technology provided by manroland enables Thairath Daily to offer readers an attractive newspaper and provides capacity for great potential growth in future. The advanced Geoman upgrade follows Thairath’s transition to digital prepress technology in 2007, assisted by manroland subsidiary ppi media as part of manroland’s printnet workflow solutions.

The latest technology and modern backup systems make presslines more reliable, safeguarding production. Spare parts are readily available for at least ten years and production processes can be diagnosed better and evaluated faster. Single-source Tele-Support and local support from manroland can access all automation and control areas.

Following the upgrade the press systems make use of latest press control standards, with ethernet communication and closed loop controls including register and cut off, as well as the advanced diagnostic system. From a long-term prospective, not only the printing hardware, but also the knowledge of printing staff has been upgraded.

The project adhered strictly to an agreed schedule, under skillful management by a team from Thairath and manroland. Successful completion of the huge upgrade project manifests the good partnership and smooth collaboration between the two companies.

 

All smiles: Pictured after completion of the largest-ever service contract at Thairath,  (from left) Tirapong Ratchtawongpipat of manroland Thailand, Voranart Dueyraksa (deputy manager production of Thairath Daily) and Job van Hasselt (chief executive of manroland South East Asia)