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The Chugoku Shimbun Takes Delivery of Sixth Mitsubishi DiamondStar Press

The Chugoku Shimbun Takes Delivery of Sixth Mitsubishi DiamondStar Press

Article ID:

13355

State-of-the-art plant in Hiroshima strengthens company’s passion for delivering timely news

One of six DiamondStar presses.

Hiroshima, Japan, 23.05.11 - The Chugoku Shimbun Co., Ltd., headquartered in
Hiroshima City, has added another Mitsubishi 4 x 2 DIAMONDSTAR press to its
Hiroshima Production Center – one of three printing plants for its morning and
evening editions. The Hiroshima Production Center is an ultra-modern facility
which went into full production in October 2006 with four lines of Mitsubishi
DIAMONDSTAR presses. A fifth press began commercial operations in April 2009.

On April 5, 2011, The Chugoku Shimbun hosted a ceremony to mark the start-up
of its sixth DIAMONDSTAR at the production center. Among the many dignitaries
on hand for this special occasion were Mr. Jiro Yamamoto, Owner and Chairman of
The Chugoku Shimbun, Mr. Kazuyuki Kawamoto, President of The Chugoku
Shimbun, and Mr. Ken Watabe, President of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Printing &
Packaging Machinery, Ltd.

The Chugoku Shimbun was founded in 1892 and is one of Japan’s leading regional
newspaper publishers with a daily circulation of approximately 800,000 copies
delivered primarily in Hiroshima as well as Yamaguchi, Shimane and Okayama
Prefectures. While The Chugoku Shimbun is also printed at the Inokuchi Plant in
Hiroshima City and the Fukuyama Plant in Fukuyama City, the Hiroshima
Production Center handles the bulk of production, printing 600,000 copies of
several morning editions and all copies of evening editions.

Toward the end of World War Two, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on the
morning of August 6, 1945 completely destroyed The Chugoku Shimbun building
and press equipment and resulted in the death of many reporters and company
employees. With a passion for delivering the latest news to Hiroshima residents,
The Chugoku Shimbun resumed publication after only a two-day stoppage by
outsourcing the printing of the paper to other publishers.

Bringing its readers the latest news is a passion that’s remains true even today.
“The biggest advantages of the DIAMONDSTAR press are its high-speed and
reliability,” says Mr. Takahiro Uefuji, Production Director of the Hiroshima
Production Center. “We have to deliver newspapers to distributors in different
areas at designated times, so if we can extend the deadline, we can bring more
up-to-date news to our readers. The DIAMONDSTAR has made this possible by
minimizing the printing time.”

The quality of color printing too has been a favorable aspect of the DIAMONDSTAR
press. Advertisers have been overwhelmingly satisfied with color quality
delivered by the press. “We have worked on creating highly attractive
newspapers,” says Mr. Uefuji. “With the specialized inserts, for example, we have
incorporated full-page color advertisements on front pages in a break from the
usual newspaper format and have received favorable responses from our readers
and clients. The Mitsubishi DIAMONDSTAR press assists us greatly by responding
to a variety of special printing requirements without compromising printing speed
or quality.”

All DIAMONDSTAR presses at the Hiroshima Production center are rated at 90,000
cph and feature a cutoff of 546mm (21.5 in) and web width of 1,626mm (64 in).
Each of the six press lines is configured with three 4/4 tower printing units, two 2/1
tower printing units, one double rotary newspaper folder (3:2 and 2:2) and five
reelstands. Press operations are executed via the Mitsubishi press control system
with automated features that include precision ink presetting with CTP interface,
various press presetting functions, automatic dual web tension control and color
register control. Unique to the recently installed sixth press line is an additional
commercial folder (single jaw) and also the DIAMOND EYE Jr. – the newly
developed color quality defect detection system, which can be readily upgraded to
the automatic closed-loop color control system “DIAMOND EYE” at any time.


About Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Printing & Packaging Machinery
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Printing & Packaging Machinery, Ltd. (MHI-P&PM) was
established on July 1, 2010 as a fully owned group company of Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries, Ltd. Headquartered in Hiroshima, Japan and operating with a work force
of approximately 1,000 employees, MHI-P&PM handles all facets related to Mitsubishi’s full lines of printing machinery and paper converting machinery, including design, production, sales, service and after-sales service support. An extensive network of domestic sales and service branches and overseas sales agents and distributors support MHI-P&PM operations. For more information, please visit the MHI-P&PM website (http://www.mhi-ppm.com/e)


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Michael Spinner-Just's picture

Michael Spinner-Just

Date

2011-05-23 08:58

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