Pressline Services Rebuilds / Upgrades Urbanite Press for The Washington Missourian

SAINT LOUIS - Pressline Services, Inc. completed a project that rebuilt, upgraded and expanded the Urbanite pressline for the Washington Missourian, a 16,000 paid circulation twice-weekly newspaper and commercial printer in Washington, Missouri. This award winning printer publishes three newspapers: The Washington Missourian, Union Missourian and the St. Clair Missourian. They also publish a senior citizens’ magazine—Senior LifeTimes—as well as having a thriving commercial printing operation and continue to be a direct mail leader.

The project included expanding a seven-unit Urbanite press to an eighteen unit fully automated offset system. The scope also included the installation of two folders, four new 4 over 4 color stacks and 2 mono units. The remanufactured presses include shaftless drives, remote circumferential and sidelay, new inking systems, spray bars and a single width QE (Quality Edition) console from Rockwell Automation. This entire system is installed in a new building addition.

The press is capable of running as one 48-32 collect press or as two smaller presses. The new controls and shaftless design make achieving acceptable quality quicker and with less manual input for presetting, ink and water. Adjusting color registration with greater precision and speed is done from the console using remote touchscreen technology. The shaftless design allows each unit to be plated up individually and independent from the other units, which means less downtime during zone changes and more productivity at the same time.

The result of this rebuild/upgrade has increased this printer’s commercial market. They are also able to offer their advertisers higher quality color reproduction resulting in a more visually appealing newspaper which in turn should help increase circulation.

The knowledgeable crew at Pressline Services, Inc., with offices in St. Louis, MO, Mansfield, TX and Joliet, IL, continues to exceed customers’ expectations. The company is equipped to provide press units, retrofits, color unit additions, electronic installations, cut-off technology (Retro21™), remanufacturing, brokerage service, web reduction, installations/press reconfigurations and complete press overhauls. These complicated projects require a full service company that combines energy, talent, experience and hard work to equate success.