With increased demand on its Goss Universal 45 press, Gannett has upgraded controls at its Arizona Republic print site.

Contractor Harland Simon replaced the MPU with a PC-based system which interfaces to the existing HDLC network, thus controlling the on-unit ink, damp and registration cards.

Additionally, 560mm touch screen controls have been mounted in the Bargraph quality desks to enable quick adjustments of all press control functions.

A second phase involved replacement of the Z808 and 859 cards on four towers (pictured), allowing the components from these upgraded towers to be harvested to support the remaining towers. The MPU-S PC-based system allows for the communication over both ethernet (new towers) and HDLC (old towers) simultaneously without affecting user operation, all through a press control touch screen control interface.

To complete the upgrade, Harland Simon installed its Prima MS/RIPSet management information system, which includes ink calibration/pre-setting, planning, impositioning (manual and automatic) and CTP workflow interface.

The solution had already been rolled out to a number of sites in Europe, Asia and the US.