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The Las Vegas (Nevada) Review-Journal has committed to a very large Goss Newsliner Press Drive upgrade project with imPRESSions Worldwide, Inc. from Burlington, Washington, in conjunction with  DCOS from Sweden, following a large wave of printers making similar decisions as of late.

The 234,000-square-foot print facility, located just a stone’s throw from Fremont Street, houses the Goss Newsliner Press that was originally installed in the year 2000. The Pressline is comprised of two sections, each with dual output folder, eight 4-High Printing towers and 12 AMAL AR80 reelstands. Overall, an impressive doublewide press with two folders, 16 towers and a total of 24 reelstands. The towers are “couple shaftless” with eight 35 HP AC motors per tower. Typical press speeds are about 55,000 copies per hour.

The original press automation system is Honeywell PRINTA II controls and a Bosch Rexroth DIAX drive system of the DKR/DDS generation. Given the age of the drive and control systems, the increasing cost to maintain the old automation system and the increased frequency of hardware failures, the Review-Journal has spent the last two years evaluating its options for a Press Drive retrofit.

The decision to retrofit the drive system on one section finally landed in favor of the DCOS Solution provided by imPRESSions Worldwide.

“A decisive factor for us is that DCOS retrofit solution replaces all critical parts, not just some of them. DCOS could demonstrate an extensive list of references and we saw a clear technological superiority of DCOS over the other solutions presented for us,” says Jarmo Lappalainen, maintenance manager, Review-Journal.

Pictured above (left to right) are Mattias Andersson, CEO at DCOS; Janet Owen, vice president of operations, Review-Journal; Jarmo Lappalainen, maintenance manager, Review-Journal; and David Gilmore, vice president of sales, imPRESSions Worldwide.

The retrofit scope includes replacement of 10 CLCs, all SERCOS fiber optic rings, DKR drives, KVD power supply modules, DDS drive and 2AD/MDD motor encoders for about 100 drives and motors.

Mattias Andersson, CEO at DCOS, said: “I’m honored we have won the trust of Janet and Jarmo to become their partner on this project. This process has been technically oriented, detailed and thorough. As a former Honeywell commissioning engineer, Jarmo asks all the right questions and is well suited to choose the best solution.”

The equipment will ship from Sweden in Q4 2024, followed by a pre-installation phase prior to the holidays. Commissioning will take place during Q1 2025.

Janet Owen, vice president of operations, stated: “I’m impressed with the young average age at DCOS, and the belief they will be around to support this system; their business continues to grow globally with a long list of successful projects.”

“Janet and Jarmo are great to work with. I have enjoyed  working on many projects with the folks at the Review-Journal over the years. They continue to grow their book of commercial work and they are dedicated to providing best-in-class news coverage and print quality to their readers and advertisers,” stated David Gilmore, vice president of sales, imPRESSions Worldwide.

For almost a decade, imPRESSions Worldwide and DCOS Automation have leveraged the skillsets of each organization to help printers increase quality, productivity and be more cost efficient. Together iW and DCOS can provide solutions for all size printers in any location.