Overview

The APCS press control system was introduced in the late eighties by Goss as their in-house solution for Colorliner double-width presses in the North American market. Goss had a large share of the new press business at that time and the APCS became well established as a result. The presses themselves still have many years of good production left in them before they can be written off. The APCS, however, has already been left well behind by current control systems technology and many of its users are now worried about it becoming obsolescent.

Reasons to Consider Replacing your ACPS

Replacing your existing APCS control system with a modern control solution, may be attractive in order to overcome some or all of the following issues:

• Out of date, proprietary hardware platform
(DEC MIRA/MicroVax, KFL, KFM, KP5, PIN cards,console components)
• Data Highway II obsolete since June 2002
• Support for DEC MIRA/MicroVax computers islimited or non-existent
• Advancing obsolescence of the Allen-Bradley Drive Master plcs
• Proprietary data link protocols
• Unavailability of spare parts
• Slow response to control inputs
• Inaccessible embedded software
• Unsupported software

Diagnostics and Support

Every Harland Simon control system comes with a sophisticated diagnostics package to help site maintenance staff to resolve problems quickly. If that fails, our 24/7 support team can access the system directly from our offices in order to provide expert assistance for your team.

The Harland Simon Solution – What’s Involved

The Harland Simon solution focuses on removing obsolete and under-performing equipment and replacing it with current technology.The results are improved efficiency and a supportable control platform for the lifetime of the press. Crucially, production can be maintained throughout the replacement.

The diagram below shows a typical APCS system. For simplicity, we have only shown one example of the drive, folder and units controls.

The system performance of the APCS and the diagnostic facilities available at the printers’ consoles are limited by the inefficient, slow data link communications and the hard-coded
application software. The solution offered by Harland Simon removes those limitations by providing high-speed, open communications for faster data throughput. The use of an
international standard single board PC provides a means of accessing system parameters to improve the diagnostics available to the press operator. A simple implementation of the APCS protocols on modern hardware would not give this advantage.

We are also able to extend our solution to include the replacement of the dated MAC and DRINK racks with modern PLC’s.

The installation is implemented in parallel with the existing system and can be completed within the restricted access periods typically available in the newspaper industry.

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