Sweden, January 25th, 2018 – The Swedish based companies MWM Group and DCOS Sweden AB have agreed to join forces regarding sales in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The synergies between the companies are obvious; dynamic and flexible organizations offering complementing systems and services to automate, control and increase productivity and quality in printing.

MWM Group opened an office in Hamburg in early 2017 headed by Björn Nickau to further strengthen MWM´s position in the market and promote the MWM Print 365 Products, including Production Planning and Copy Track.

“MWM Group is an interesting company with an impressive portfolio and strong focus on sales that fit well with our ambitions. I have known Björn Nickau for many years, he is a solid background in the industry working 19 years for EAE which obviously means he is familiar with the type of systems and solutions DCOS is offering. I´m very excited and optimistic about this co-operation”, says Mattias Andersson CEO at DCOS.

The co-operation is effective from January 1th 2018 and Björn Nickau will promote DCOS range of products to new and existing customers in the territory. DCOS is a global market leader in Closed-loop Density Systems for newspaper presses and a well-established provider of Retrofit solutions for press control and drive systems.

Björn Nickau explains; “With very interesting technical solutions in its Closed-Loop Inspection System and Drive & Control System Retrofit´s, DCOS is successful on the world-wide market. DCOS has already installations and good references in Germany but I´m very excited to have these solutions available for promotion to our markets”.

MWM solutions Print 365 for printers and Media 365 for publishers and media houses are of great interest to the European market

Since 2017 the MWM sales visited many newspaper and commercial printers especially in Germany and in Switzerland. We focus on our module-based Print 365 solutions which helps our customers within the newspaper and commercial printing industry to cut production cost and/or to increase revenue.
These proven solutions of MWM are already being used by a number of large German and Swiss printers like for example Swiss Printers, Burda Druck and TSB (Tiefdruck Schwann-Bagel). New projects will further increase the installed base in the year 2018.

In addition MWM Group has launched its MWM Media 365 product which attracted great interest at the Ifra World Publishing Expo & DCX Digital Content Expo in Berlin in September 2017.
The MWM Media 365 is a comprehensive solution for publishers and media houses for CRM, operations as well as total data management. The core module “Insight & Marketing” allows publishers the 360° view of their customers, to track data from their various activities, to standardize it, collate it and present it in configurable dashboards so that marketing initiatives and content can be optimally targeted. Two well-known large Scandinavian media houses are using the MWM Media 365 solution to manage the transition to new sales and marketing structures as well as to have opportunities to radically reduce the average age of their readership and to secure the long-term loyalty of tomorrow’s key customer groups.

”There is a very good fit between the two companies products and services. Both deliver real value in supplying solutions with high quality and benefits. In addition both companies have a solid reputation for a long term comitment to the printing market and pleased customers. This is a further step to establish MWM Group as a strong player in the DACH area”. says Jörgen Karlsson, MWM Group

About DCOS Inspection System
DCOS Inspection Systems is a range of in-house developed camera based systems for the printing industry. The systems automate a majority of the traditionally manual quality adjustments made in the printing process. This in turn increases productivity and cost effectiveness as waste, start-up time, use of consumables and manning can be greatly reduced. At the same time a high and consistent quality is guaranteed. DCOS Inspection System measures solid ink micro marks. Offline densitometric measurement of ink solid is proven in the industry for decades, it simple and stable. DCOS has reengineered the concept and developed an online high-speed solution adaptable to any press. This technology is optimized for best performance, repeatability and effectiveness. This is proven at installation across the globe.

About DCOS
DCOS offers custom-designed automated solutions with a focus on user-friendliness, efficiency and reliability – the aim is to maximize the productivity of the customers. DCOS offers a new approach in operation and control systems, operator interfaces, production reporting and camera-based inspection systems for new and existing printing press installations, including retrofitting of existing presses- The company has installations across the world and operates a strong service organization based on a network of carefully selected and skilled agents and partners.

Contact information:
Jörgen Karlsson, MWM Group
+41 792272876
jorgen.karlsson@mwm.se

Björn Nickau, MWM Group
+49 1579 2350007
bjorn.nickau@mwm.se

Mattias Andersson, CEO, DCOS Sweden AB
+46 320 207544
mattias.andersson@dcos.se

KINNA, June 15th, 2017 – DCOS has secured yet another order for its closed-loop Inspection System technology. Skive Folkeblad decided in the end of last year to award DCOS the contract to modernize its Tensor press from 1999.

Dating back to year 1880, Skive Folkeblad is a publisher and printer in the beautiful Limfjorden area in Jylland, Denmark. With the daily newspaper “Skive Folkeblad” as its flagship, all their publications are for the local region, but as a contract printer their reach is across Europe.
The Tensor press was originally installed in 1999 and expanded in 2004 and consists of six 4-high printing towers and two folders with the newer equipment rated at 45.000cph. The press is equipped with a footprint shaftless drive and control system that was originally supplied by Söderqvist. Further it has spray a dampening system from Inventor Graphics and closed-loop register and cut-off system from Q.I Press controls.

The scope of the project is to replace the existing closed-loop register and cut-off system with a complete DCOS Inspection System package including closed-loop density. Twelve CRC4 scanners for combined closedloop density and register will be installed along with twelve PTC4 scanners for cut-off control. In addition, DCOS will integrated the existing EPG ink control system, the spray system and upgrade parts of the original press control system including two new integrated control desks.

John Vejle, Operation Manager at Skive Folkeblad, says: “We´ve always strived to be in the forefront when it comes to technology and methods of printing newspapers. This is how we have been able to stay successful and competitive over many years. For this particular investment, DCOS was able to show us a reference site that is almost identical to our press, 10 years younger but same type for equipment and automation. The Tensor press at Nr1Adressatrykk in Norway got equipped with DCOS closed loop density three years ago and the productivity on that press is amazing. Minimal manning and high efficiency. Based on their data, our ROI calculation fell in place and our choice became obvious.”

The Danish market is undergoing a similar consolidation as many if its neighbor countries has gone through. But there´s still several small to mid-size printers and an overcapacity in the market. This investment will give Skive Folkeblad yet another edge to strengthen its position. The system will be in production by end of June this year and even though it´s not the first closed loop density system sold in Denmark (another vendor sold a system in 2014) this start-up marks the date for the first running system on a newspaper press in Denmark.

Closed-loop density control for coldest printing has really kicked off in the last couple of years. With 86 closed-loop cameras sold over the last 12 months, DCOS has taken a market leading role in this segment.

“We are very pleased that Skive Folkeblad decided in favor of us and our technology. As always, our existing customers play a major role in our ongoing sales efforts and the support from Nr1Adressatrykk in sharing data, results and hands-on experience during more than a handful of visits was extremely helpful. I think this built the trust and provided the necessary facts needed to make a decision towards investing. A sales person can give hundreds of arguments, but at the end of the day, it’s results and ROI from running systems that represents the only hard facts.” says Mattias Andersson, CEO at DCOS Sweden AB.

Download Pressrelease as PDF here!

KINNA December 1st, 2016 – Based in Everett (WA) in the northwest pacific region of USA, Sound Publishing plays a major role as the largest community media organization in the state. The company was founded in 1987 under the name Whidbey Press Newspaper Group and had three publication at that time. Mainly through acquisition the company has grown steadily over the years and today operates almost 50 newspaper titles of its own.

2007 was an important year for Sound Publishing as a new press facility was established and six smaller print shops was consolidated into one central print facility in Everett. An 8 tower, 2 folder DGM press from 2003 was acquired and became the flagship of the operation. The press was well automated with Indramat unit shaftless drive system, AR60 splicers, remote inking and auto-registration.

Larry Babcock, director of Operations at Sound Publishing says; “We have a few things that make our operation unique. First of all we have over 600 start-ups per month, secondly we run a 3-across format on single-wide press which adds some complexity to reach good presetting and efficiency. We were searching to find a vendor not only capable of extending service life of our equipment but who also has solutions to make us more cost and time efficient and who can offer us a one-source partnership for our entire press automation.”

Contact was established between Sound Publishing and DCOS in 2015 and for about one year different solutions with its corresponding ROI calculations was discussed and evaluated. In August 2016 Sound publishing decided to place the order in favor for DCOS.

The project will include a new press control system (partly utilizing existing I/O structure), new control stations, DCOS motion controller to replace Indramat CLC´s, partial drive upgrade, remote inking system integration and upgrade. The installation will start in beginning of January 2017 and will be carried out on a tower-by-tower basis while the press is in normal production.

“It has been a very interesting process to engage in discussions with Larry and his team on this project and we look forward to a long-term partnership with Sound Publishing. Our ideas of making printing more of an automated process will become reality in this project, and I feel we have come up with a very strong solution.
These types of projects– combining life time extension of press controls and drives with productivity and automation upgrades– is DCOS strength. Our uniqueness being the only company in the industry who has the capability to handle this type of project within one organization on any press brand.” says Mattias Andersson CEO at DCOS.

This project represents DCOS tenth system installation in USA.

Download Pressrelease as PDF here!

The big event in our industry is near to start, the DRUPA expo in Germany. Since many years there has been a cooperation around the exhibitions between Tensor, DCOS and Tolerans and this year is no, different. We have partnered up again, in Hall 15, Booth C50-2.

TENSOR is presenting a couple of new major product improvements this Drupa;

#1   Tensor now offers automatic-plate lock-up on all series of printing units. This is a robust and yet simplistic solution to save a lot of setup time. On a well automated press, the plate up procedure is by far the most labor intensive task that often dictates the amount of press operators needed. This new feature makes it possible to operate a press efficiently with less people. It takes one operator less than two minutes to re-plate a 4-high tower.

 

#2   Tensors H50HD jaw folder with up to 14 webs capacity is a well-known product that has gone through a major redesign/upgrades;

• It is now fully shaftless with independent Nip, RTF, Quarter folder and tape drives
• The nipping section has been completely redesigned with pneumatic nip setting compared to the traditional ways of setting a fixed distance between nips and adjusting with any change in pagination
• The folder is fitted with a touchscreen for settings, information and adjustments
• Nips, trolleys and slitters are remotely controlled from the control desk or from the touch screen

 

DCOS is focusing on the two main topics in the industry today when it comes to automation; RETROFIT and CLOSED-LOOP systems.

#1  DCOS can offer drive and control system RETROFITS on most presses on the market. Our strength is finding the right customized solution for each customer and implementing on a running press. DCOS uses only standard industrial components which contributes to cost effective and future-proof solutions

 

#2 DCOS introduced the multi-function CRC4 closed-loop color scanner on DRUPA 2012. Four years later it´s fair to say that it was introduced at the right time and it was the right technology; it is a very successful product. Today the functionality has been further extend which we will be presenting at DRUPA. Based on data from all installations we have created a tool for ROI calculations that is providing us and our customers with accurate basis for an investment.

#3 A “one source” supplier

Many printers who are looking at extending service life of their presses by a RETROFIT also decides to increase the automation level by adding CLOSED-LOOP system to stay competitive.

DCOS is unique in our industry in offering both products within one company. DCOS has one R&D department, one software platform, one hardware platform, one project manager team and one team of technician. This makes DCOS cost effective, efficient and well-coordinated.

We look forward to see you in Düsseldorf in the next weeks!

 

Download Pressrelease as PDF here!

Markbladet Tryckeri is located in Sweden, just about one hour drive south east of Gothenburg. Markbladet Tryckeri has continued its efforts to maximize the productivity of its Manugraph press by placing yet another order with DCOS. The scope is a complete inspection system with closed-loop color control, color register control, cut-off control and web-guide control. The order also includes DCOS softproof system.

Markbladet Tryckeri prints newspaper and inserts products. Two well-known customers are METRO newspaper and ICA. ICA´s insert work has a weekly circulation of almost 2 million copies. The press, a Manugraph HILINE, was installed in 2005 and consists of five 4-high printing towers and two folders.
Christofer Hammarström, MD at Markbladet Tryckeri, elaborates; “There is a lot going on at Markbladet Tryckeri in recent time. We have gone through a generation change and I have had the possibility to set a long term plan for the operation and initiate some internal processes to utilize our organization and equipment in the most efficient way. Our press is now paid off, which put us in a favorable financial situation giving us means to execute our plans for future growth and ensured productivity. We are happy, once again, to have DCOS be part of forming our future”

The partnership between Markbladet Tryckeri and DCOS goes back a long way. DCOS has replaced several of the original systems on the press over the years to enhance stability and to obtain waste reductions. In 2008 the original Manugraph infeeds were redesigned and rebuilt to become closed-loop and the original PIV was replaced by a shaftless technology. In 2013 the original “Manucolor” ink control system was replaced by DCOS ink control system with ink presetting. Web alignment register was also motorized and remote controlled. And now in 2016, the existing closed-loop register and cut-off system will be replaced by DCOS technology, while also adding closed-loop color control, web guide control and softproof. “First of all we are extremely pleased that Markbladet Tryckeri choose to place their trust in us and our technology while taking this huge step in automation level. Together we have reached good results and savings in upgrading the press over the years and this is the largest leap so far. This is our first Inspction System installation on a Manugraph press and to our knowledge the first Manugraph press worldwide to be equipped with closed loop color. So this is a very exciting milestone for us”, says Andreas Andersson, Sales Manager at DCOS.

The installation will commence beginning of March.

Download Pressrelease as PDF here!