Centre d’Impression Lausanne (CIL), a print center of the Tamedia group in Switzerland, is ensuring the long-term availability of its Wifag evolution 371 press by turning to ABB for a press control retrofit.
CIL prints various Tamedia products for the French-speaking part of Switzerland including well-known titles such as “24 heures”.
The Wifag press consists of five printing towers, two folders and six reelstands. The scope of the order includes the replacement of the control systems on two printing towers and two reelstands and also new section control systems.
The new systems supplied by ABB are based on its highly successful AC500 PLC and will be commissioned without taking the press out of production. The ABB concept fully supports mixed operation of old and new systems – a printing tower with the new ABB system can work together with other units that are still using the old system. This makes a step-by-step approach possible. The commissioning is scheduled to begin in October of this year.
Damian Staedeli, head of ABB’s printing department, explains the significance of the order: “This is our second order in a couple of months that sees us replacing Wifag “Platform” systems that are based on AMK Symac hardware. This order from CIE follows the one from Gannett in USA for North Jersey Media and establishes ABB as the leading supplier for “Platform” replacements.”
