Oosterhout, December 2016
New retrofit order
from the U.S. for QIPC – EAE Americas
The QIPC – EAE Americas success story in the
newspaper retrofit business continues unbroken. The company has just been
chosen by The Kansas City Star in
Kansas City, Missouri, to modernize the hardware and software of its EAE press
systems as part of a major investment. The
Star – which currently belongs to The McClatchy Company, the leading
newspaper and Internet publisher – owns 4 KBA Commander web presses, which went
into operation in 2006. The presses are arranged in two identical lines and
comprise a total of 36 towers and 40 reelstands, as well as 2 single and 2
double folders. They have been equipped from the onset with EAE control
consoles and press control systems.
The web presses operate 365 days a year. Every week, more than 7 million
newspapers leave the print shop. In addition to The Kansas City Star, the company also prints The Wall Street Journal, USA
Today, Wichita Eagle, Topeka Capital Journal, Lawrence Journal World, University Daily Kansan, and various
other weekly, monthly, and quarterly publications.
The Kansas City Star is hoping the retrofit project with QIPC – EAE Americas will extend the life of its newspaper web
presses, make production more reliable, ensure the systems’ future
serviceability, and generate other benefits associated with such an advanced
technology. It involves replacing the PC hardware of the 14 EAE control
consoles for the web presses, which are getting on in years. Furthermore it
involves EAE system PCs with new, more powerful hardware running the latest
Windows operating system version and a modern server virtualization platform.
The EAE PRINT production planning and preset system and the EAE Info reporting
and logging system will likewise be brought up to date and better aligned to
the customer’s specific requirements.
Retrofit by the system manufacturer guarantees safety and efficiency
“It was QIPC – EAE Americas who manufactured and supplied the control
consoles and the control technology for our presses. They’re more familiar with
these systems than any other partner, they’ve got a wealth of experience with
retrofits in the newspaper industry, and as we see it they’re the ones best
qualified to handle this project. That means less risk for us and lower costs
than we might have incurred if we’d awarded the contract to another vendor,”
says Randy Waters, Midwest Regional VP Production of The McClatchy Company.
The retrofit will take place in two phases. Phase one will kick off in
the first quarter of 2017 with the update of the EAE workflow systems (EAE
Print, EAE Info) for all 4 web presses and the PC retrofit for one press. Phase
two – the PC retrofits for the three remaining presses – is scheduled for 2018.
“Taking account of our printing needs, each project phase can be completed
faster with this strategy. What’s more, modernizing all of our presses at once
would have been something of a risky venture, and we can now split the costs
between two annual budgets,” Waters explains. “I can only describe the
cooperation with QIPC – EAE Americas as excellent. They’re a partner who
understand our requirements, and they presented us with a made-to-measure
solution. We’re convinced that QIPC – EAE Americas will also make a very good
job of things when it comes to actually implementing the retrofit project.”
