Page 52 - Print 21 Magazine Sep-Oct 2018

Post press
Blue Star logs on with Rima
Australia’s most significant post-press web printing installation in a decade cements Rima’s dominance of the sector. The year long installation of finishing and automated technology at the IVE Group’s Sydney printing sites proved to be a definite win for Tom Ralph’s Graph-Pak.
Blue Star’s decision
to refresh its
manroland high-
speed web presses
in Sydney sparked
a campaign to re-equip the
finishing department with the
latest log stacking, trimming
and palletising equipment,
from German company,
Rima. The new post press
equipment represents the
biggest investment Blue Star
Web has made in its finishing
area for some time, and
encompasses not only the
Silverwater site but also the
new Huntingwood greenfield catalogue production factory. Five Rima RS610 post press lines and palletisers, along with new high speed rotary trimmers and log stackers ensures the two
sites are among the most automated production facilities in the country.
According to Darryl Meyer, group general manager web offset at Blue Star Web, the upgrade came about when the company replaced its original manroland Polyman with a new Rotoman. He says, “We took the decision then to completely automate our bindery at the same time. Rima has been a Blue Star partner for many years, and during the course of our technology evaluation it became clear that the Rima technology was the best fit for our post press requirements.
“Also important was the service and support from Rima and local supplier Graph-Pak. The Blue Star Web site has five heatset presses running 24 hours a day, three manroland webs and two Goss lines, so we need to know our equipment supplier has the service levels to support our operation, which Graph-Pak has proved it has.”
Tom Ralph, owner of Graph-Pak, says Rima provided a lot of support right throughout the installation. Axel Tueble, the German-based owner of Rima, along with Jacky Ng, its Asia director, came to Australia in the early
52 Print21 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018
part of the sales process. A good mix of nationalities among the installing engineers over the 12 months reflects the group’s international status.
Rima has manufacturing facilities in Germany and the USA, and both sent members of their installation teams to support Graph-Pak’s own support staff to ensure the installation went ahead smoothly and on time. Now that the five lines are up and running, Blue Star is already reaping the benefits in every part of the production process.
Meyer says, “Rima gives us the reliability and flexibility we need.
We worked with the company to design the workflow concepts for the log stackers, palletisers and rotary trimmers. The aim has been to create seamless performance in the collation of the magazines from white reel, through printing and post press. The new post-press solutions from Rima have enabled us to achieve this. We are seeing the increase quality in
our internal performance, and have less downtime and less engineering demand. Uptime performance of our post press operation is increasing. Press performances have increased and press stoppages have decreased.
“We actually installed five Rima
log stackers; three in Blue Star Web andtwo in the new Franklin Web facility We have transferred some long run magazines to Huntingwood as that plant is more suited to that work.”
The new Franklin site runs two 80pp manroland Lithoman presses, feeding into the Rima log stackers.
Blue Star Web produces everything inhouse. As well as the five heatset presses it has a new ten-colour low energy UV Heidelberg sheetfed press to produce covers, and has its own saddle stitch and perfect binding lines. Blue Star Web is part of the publicly owned diversified IVE business.
Tom Ralph’s relationship with Rima stretches back over 17 years
to the time when he was working with Edward Keller. When he formed
“Rima gives us the reliability and flexibility we need."
Graph-Pak in 2005 the equipment brand proved a natural fit. Since
then Rima and Graph-Pak have won most of the web finishing equipment contracts in Australia and New Zealand. The IVE Group installation is a typical example, with Rima replacing another brand’s finishing equipment.
“I believe this is the largest post press installation in the country in the past ten years,’ says Ralph. “We brought in fifteen forty-foot containers, and used 450 meters of conveyor rollers in the process. We have a good relationship with both IVE Group and with Rima. It’s a great match,” he said. 21
Above: Tom Ralph outside the new Graph-Pak premises in Caringbah. “Wehad
to move.
We needed more space, especially for our growing laminating film business,” he said.
Right:
Blue Star’s presiding technocrat, Darryl Meyer oversaw
the Rima installation.