The Malayala Manorama invests in five press lines from Mitsubishi

Established in 1988, The Malayala Manorama is one of world’s largest daily newspapers with a circulation of 2.3 million copies a day. It is published from 18 printing centres: 11 centres in Kerala, five centres in Indian cities outside Kerala, and two located outside of India. The company also publishes more than 40 magazine titles in Malayalam as well as in English. It has presence in media outlets, Internet (Manorama Online), television (Manorama News) and radio (Radio Mango) broadcasting.

Mammen Mathew, editor and Managing Director said, “With today’s tough market conditions higher ROI ratio was required to justify any new press investment. After in-depth comparisons of several different press models with actual product observations day and night, Mitsubishi’s Diamondspirit-SA press was recognised as the best press to meet the company’s requirements.”

He added, “Company reliability and sustainability also weighed heavily in the press selection process and Mitsubishi was favoured because of its long track record in India, its comprehensive sales and service support network, and it’s continuing commitment to the Indian printing and publishing market”.

The Mitsubishi Diamondspirit-SA is a newly developed press, which according to Mitsubishi, has been designed and manufactured specifically for the growing Indian and Asian markets. The company has claimed that the compact press design reduces power consumption by 20%, and its precise web tension control reduces start-up waste as well as print waste. Masami Shimizu, president, packaging and printing machinery at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, said,” “Our main focus in designing the concept for the machine was higher return on investment (ROI) and this was accomplished by applying a single around blanket cylinder design and by building a more compact press.”

The Mitsubishi 4x1 Diamondspirit-SA presses for The Malayala Manorama delivers a speed of 75,000 cph with a cut-off of 546mm and a web width of 1,400mm. The press lines are configured to have four 4/4 tower printing units, one 1/1 tower printing unit, one 2:2 single rotary folder and five reel stands. The operation of the press can be handled from Mitsubishi press control system which includes automated features capable of ink presetting with CTP interface, various press presets, automatic webbing up, automatic dual web tension control, automatic colour register control.

The Mitsubishi 4x1 Diamondspirit-SA press is equipped with a Soft-Stop function, which slowly stop the press in event there is a power failure, which is achieved through a synchronisation of a shaftless drive motor. Shimizu said, “The Soft Stop function is an economical option than that of the UPS and does not incur any web breaks.”

The first Diamondspirit-SA press for The Malayala Manorama is expected to be shipped around mid-2014, and all remaining presses will be shipped in succession by late summer of 2015.