Times Herald Record - Middletown, NY select Harland Simon’s Press Control Upgrade Chicago, IL 15^th May 2007

Following on from the success at The Winnipeg Free Press, Harland Simon has been selected by Times Herald Record – Middletown, NY as the vendor of choice for replacing their press control systems on their Goss Metro/TKS presses. The conversion will be carried out in the fall, with all presses in full production by the end of the year, without any disruption to Middletown’s busy production schedule. The project includes replacement of the main press controls, installation of six Prima 6000 operator consoles, all with automatic on-line soft proofing and supply of a comprehensive suite of management system modules including direct ink presetting.

The principles of the upgrade are: Replacement of obsolete quality and folder controls with PRIMA 6000 control consoles and PressNet system; all Goss proprietary communications are eliminated and replaced with an Ethernet/IP network connecting dual (includes back-up) Press Master PLCs and remote I/Os at the units, Reelstands, Compensators and Drives with serial interfaces controlling new CGI digital inkers and Ryco/Technotrans dampeners.

At all times, the existing system will remain operational until the new system is fully tested and commissioned, which eliminates any risk to production. This method also keeps costs down whilst replacing all the vulnerable parts of the system. The solution is based on techniques that have been successfully developed for the replacement of many control systems originally supplied by Goss, Rockwell Automation and Honeywell over the past 10 years.

Fred Stanton, Middletown’s Production Director commented, “We evaluated a number of control vendors and found Harland Simon was the clear choice.  We weighed factors such as hardware, software, and emphasized user friendliness.  The Harland Simon Responsibility Matrix eliminated guess work from installation planning, and the fact that they were the best price was the icing on the cake."

The motivation to convert was the need to replace obsolete hardware and integrate CGI digital inking including direct presetting and the choice of Harland Simon was made on the basis of improved technical support and enhanced features such as comprehensive monitoring, touch screen technology, on-line soft proofing, advanced reporting and ink presetting with adapted (learning) algorithms.

John Staiano, Senior Vice President for Harland Simon, further commented, “We are delighted with Fred’s decision to select Harland Simon; not only is this our first controls order in the Ottaway group, it continues the confidence level large groups have in Harland Simon."

Although this is the first controls order into the Ottaway group; three years ago Harland Simon installed their unique ‘true’ Auto Imposition System, Prima Esprit at The Record - Stockton, CA. In addition, Harland Simon has had a successful partnership with Dow Jones [owners of Ottaway] since 2000, when they installed their Totalizing and News Print Allocation systems [Prima Totalizer and Roll Tracking System] in all 17 Dow Jones locations across the US. Since then, Dow Jones has also installed Prima Esprit, including sophisticated edition-linking logic, which sends the imposition data to the ABB controls. Dow Jones also installed Harland Simon’s Page Booking System [Prima ColorWare] to maximize their color placement selection, which is also interfaced to their Atex page layout system.

For further information, please contact John Staiano, Senior Vice President Tel: +001 (630) 572 7650  Email:  john.staiano@harlandsimon.com

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