KINNA, August 22, 2019 – DCOS Sweden AB is proud to announce a substantial contract to retrofit the existing Bosch Rexroth drive system at OTM Avistryk Herning-Ikast A/S in Ikast, Denmark. The existing equipment consists of two Goss Universal 45 presses, with a total of twelve 4-high printing towers and two folders installed in early 2000, comprise over 70 drives and motors. The presses are by an EAE press control system and AMAL splicers.

In the 1990’s, Bosch Rexroth, with its well-known brand Indramat, took part in transforming the graphic arts industry from traditional mechanical line shafts to shaftless drive transmission. In the last 20+ years, Shaftless technology has been the predominant method to run and control printing presses and industry leading OEMs like KBA, Goss, DGM, and Solna has relied on Bosch Rexroth´s technology.

Many of these presses were equipped with the DIAX series of drives and the CLC motion controller. All based on SERCOS II fiber optics. Like all electronics, the service life of components is limited and especially on power electronics making the DIAX system a challenge to maintain today. There are many short-term solutions available to extend service life for a few years, but most do not involve any change in technology. This approach only delays the inevitable, which is a complete retrofit in the near future.

In 2015 DCOS developed an industry unique Retrofit concept for the DIAX platform, a step-by-step migration of the old DIAX system to a modern drive system platform, the same platform we use on new presses toady. The investment is targeted towards a new state-of-the-art technology, and gradually the old SERCOS II fiber optic system is removed and replaced with a standardized, non-proprietary Ethernet based bus system.

OTM Avistryk realized a few years back that they needed to extend the operational life of the Bosch Rexroth system on their Goss presses to fight obsolescence and to ensure uptime of their presses.

Frank Haberstroh, Managing Director says; “We are dedicated to printing and predict to do so for a long time. We heard about the DCOS retrofit solution for the DIAX drive system and got very interested as we were seeking for a more long-term approach than what was previously offered to us. We saw a DCOS retrofit on a Universal press and it was very convincing. Originally, we talked about step-by-step retrofit, but in the end, we decide it was more cost effective for us to do a complete retrofit on our six tower, one folder press.”

In April the contact was signed for the retrofit of thirty-two drives and four CLC motion controllers. The proprietary motor encoders will also be replaced by standard encoders. The retrofit will start in the end of August and will be competed in four weeks.

“Creating cost effective solutions with a technical edge has always been the strength of DCOS. I´m particularly proud of this solution. It’s the only truly future-proof solution offered today, completely based on standard hardware, cost-effective, and adaptable step-by-step. OTM Avistryk is the seventh press undergoing an DCOS retrofit of Bosch Rexroth system and we are thankful for the trust Frank and his team relies on us”, says Mattias Andersson, CEO DCOS Sweden AB.

KINNA, May 15, 2019 – PressWorks Ink, a subsidiary of Swift Communications, Inc., has contracted DCOS Automation Sweden for a complete drives and controls retrofit on its DGM 440 press. PressWorks Ink prints the Carson City “Nevada Appeal” and the Reno “Gazette-Journal” along with several other weekly, monthly, tabloid, and specialty products.

DCOS will replace the existing six Eurotherm SSD drives with new digital drives. The existing DGM consoles will be replaced with new DCOS consoles that integrate all press functions, ink presetting and remote inking control, dampening, splicers and infeed’s to new touchscreen control. The existing fiber optic loop will be replaced with a new EtherCat star-network with direct communication to each drive.

The drives and controls are supported by DCOS 24/7 remote support. Chris Johnson, Director of Print Manufacturing for Swift Communications adds; “for years we have spent too much time and effort troubleshooting our drive and controls issues. These older systems now have very limited technical support and spare parts availability. We felt the time was right to upgrade to a more modern, supportable platform. The feedback we received from DCOS customers with similar projects gave us the confidence to move forward with them.”

DCOS will also assist in the scavenging of useful spare parts from the old Eurotherm drives and DGM console to be used at another Swift Communications site.

While DCOS has a strong history of drives and controls retrofits in Europe on nearly all types of newspaper presses, this is the most extensive drives and controls project so far in the USA. “Obviously we are very excited to be awarded this project. It will demonstrate all our capabilities as we assist centralized newspaper printers like PressWorks Ink in the long-term performance and supportability of their presses” adds Ron Ehrhardt, Sales Director for DCOS in North and South America. “We now have recent drive, controls, and closed loop automation customers in the USA, and look forward to demonstrating our capabilities to this market.”

The installation will begin in September 2019.

KINNA, March 21th, 2019 – Norwegian newspaper Sunnhordland Trykkeri, located in the town of Leirvik on the island of Stord on the Norwegian west coast, has contracted with DCOS for an extensive press addition and upgrade project. Sunnhordland Trykkeri is a privately-owned newspaper and printshop and one of the few in Scandinavia who is independent from the larger groups. The closing of printshops in the surrounding area of Stord has enabled Sunnhordland Trykkeri to attract more contract work.

The additional newspapers created a need for press expansion and upgrading to meet higher page count and color needs. DCOS will install 3 – Goss Community 4-high towers and a Tensor H50 folder to the existing Goss Community/Global press in a multi-phase installation while maintaining daily production at the facility.

DCOS will perform a complete electrical retrofit replacing existing drives and controls with new drives and controls, a new control console, and converting the shafted drive system to a group shaftless drive configuration of 1-motor per 2-4 High towers. Other DCOS upgrades include adding remote inking and register motors to all current manual 4-High towers.

According to Reidar Hystad, Managing Director at Sunnhordland “In times when consolidation and down-scaling projects are the main topic, it´s encouraging to be in a position where we have many opportunities that allows us to expand our press in terms of page capacity, efficiency and means to future-proofing our drive and control system. With the complexity in a project like this, keeping our production running daily during the six phases of mechanical and electrical work, we were looking for a single partner to handle this complete project for us. DCOS reputation and experience in a project like this was very convincing for us.”

Mattias Andersson, Managing Director of DCOS adds “This project showcases all of the unique capabilities of the DCOS family of products and services. Our acquisition of Tensor now allows us to be heavily involved in the mechanical aspects of a project, like the removal and reinstallation of equipment, adding remote inking, along with the traditional DCOS capabilities such as drive, controls, and automatic press registration and density control equipment upgrades.”

DCOS will complete the project in April of 2019.

KINNA, October 4th, 2018 – In an effort to secure their role as a leading newspaper printer in Norway, Agderposten Trykk AS, based in Arendal, has contracted DCOS for a major automation upgrade of their Goss Magnum press, involving partial retrofit of the Goss Omnicon system and adding DCOS Closed-loop inspection system.

The nine towers, three folder Goss Magnum press-line installed in 2006 is well utilized producing over 10 million copies per month. This includes printing six of its own newspapers, contract printing for other Norwegian newspapers and commercial work.

The existing drive and control system engineered by Goss at the time of installation in 2006 created many challenges during the first years. The complexity in design, lack of support and the growing need to tackle obsolesces pushed Agderposten Trykk to find other solutions to futureproof their automation solutions. Besides the need to secure system uptime, parts and support Agderposten Trykk was also looking at measures to reduce the waste and consumable costs.

The overall scope of the project involves separating the quality functions (ink, water, register and web tension) from the Omnicon platform which also eliminates the need for the Goss WebCenter production management system. The existing Quad Tech Multicam system will be replaced and the existing Baldwin spray system will be integrated.

Rune Andresen, Managing director at Agderposten Trykk AS says: “We found a partner who step-by-step can take ownership of our entire press control, this was a very strong argument for our decision towards DCOS”.

DCOS will install the control components to handle the quality functions of the press along with three operator desk touch screens, Printing framework software package including presetting and pre-press interface and finally its Inspection System (eighteen CRC4 cameras) for closed-loop control of the quality functions.

“Our primary incitement to invest in Closed-loop Density is to reduce our start-up waste and ink consumption, and in that aspect, based on what we have experienced in our procurement process, DCOS technology is very convincing”, Rune continues.

To handle the emerging need to retrofit the Goss WebCenter, the project was divided in two phases. The first phase, to take over the control of quality functions was completed in September. The second phase to install the closed-loop system will take place next month.

“I´m very grateful and excited about the confidence we got from Rune and his team. This project has most of the typical ingredient of a DCOS project; customized, cost-effective solutions assembled to futureproof and automate the functions which has most impact on the waste and productivity”, says Mattias Andersson, CEO DCOS Sweden AB.