France's Largest National Newspaper chooses Baldwin Technology

9/15/2003

Sep. 15, 2003

France's largest national newspaper, Le Monde, has chosen Baldwin Technology Company, Inc. to install its IMPACT® Global automatic blanket cleaning system on the company's new Wifag OF7 370 GTD newspaper press. Installation of the 24 IMPACT® Global double head cleaners follows the recent installation of Baldwin's LithoSpray™ Optima spray dampening system on the new four-colour, six-tower press.

The Wifag OF7 370 GTD, due to run at full production at the Ivry site in June, is Le Monde's third Wifag press and will print the financial publication, Les Echos, currently being printed at another site. Technical director, Marc Brignet, explains that with the recent government changes to environmental regulations, the company, which has been printing the Le Monde newspaper since 1944, has had to improve waste management and quality of press ancillaries. "Although we have Baldwin equipment on our other two presses, we looked at a number of suppliers in this purchase. However, IMPACT®'s environmental - and constant cleaning - efficiency still impressed us the most. The minimal amount of waste and VOCs in the cleaning process allows us to run our facility efficiently and in accordance with the environmental requirements, which further adds to cost savings."

IMPACT® is the most environmentally-efficient blanket cleaning system available, thanks to the fact that no solvents are sprayed and no waste solvents or excess paper waste is created. The system uses Baldwin's unique PREPAC® wash cloth rolls - impregnated with an environmentally-friendly low VOC cleaning agent - which ensure that only the exact amount of agent required is applied to the blanket, thus keeping the agent completely contained in the roll, and totally eliminating solvent handling. Lint and ink residues are not only retained by the PREPAC® cloths but are also completely disposed of by the use of water in the cleaning process.

With only two other moving components in addition to the PREPAC® supply roll ‚ an airpad to bring the PREPAC® into position for cleaning and an air cylinder to advance the takeup shaft IMPACT® reduces make-ready times and lowers consumption of washcloth rolls resulting in savings for the printer. An easy-to-use operating panel allows the press operator to simply select the units to be cleaned and chose the degree of cleaning that is needed depending on the type of work being printed.

Le Monde has an average daily circulation of 500,000 and includes four supplements in any one edition. Along with the three contract publications printed by the Ivry site ‚ Le Journal des Finances, Le Journal du dimanche and 20 Minutes ‚ and the forthcoming Les Echos publication, the printer is producing in excess of 1.5 million prints a day. "With this substantial production, reducing down time is critical," says Mr Bignet. The company, therefore, has to ensure that each piece of equipment is assisting in increasing its production. "There's certainly no risk of IMPACT® increasing down time. Its operational simplicity and extremely low maintenance levels are hugely beneficial to our production levels ‚ something we wouldn't get with a brush blanket cleaning system."

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