Keeping the presses rolling
The Sigma Air Manager 4.0 compressed air management master system from Kaeser Compressors is assisting News Corp Australia in boosting the operational reliability and efficiency, as well as significantly reducing the associated energy costs, of its compressed air systems at a number of its major print centres.
News Corp Australia (News) is Australia’s number one media company and part of the world’s largest global media and information service - News Corp. Over 11.2 million Australians consume news* and information from its suite of traditional print products alone each month. The print portfolio includes over 170 brands including a vast list of national, metropolitan, regional and community newspapers such as; The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun and The Courier-Mail to name only a few.
The printing presses at News Corp Australia’s Adelaide print centre.
News has major print centres in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. At every print centre, compressed air plays a key role as Rob Taylor, Engineering Projects Manager at News explains: ‘Compressed air is a fairly major portion of our production operation. From the paper reel handling machines, to the printing presses, and through to our distribution centres where the newspapers are collated and bundled ready for despatch - we rely on a dependable source of compressed air.’
Throughout the major print centres, News has opted over the years to include a number of Kaeser compressors within their compressed air systems to assist them in meeting their demand for a reliable and efficient supply of compressed air. Committed to environmental sustainability, in July 2007 News introduced an environment initiative called 1 Degree. From carbon reduction, to product stewardship, waste minimisation as well as recycling and water conservation, the philosophy of the 1 Degree initiative is to make small steps that add up to big change and lead to a sustainable future.
As part of this initiative the efficiency of the production operation was considered including assessing the compressed air systems. With a requirement to maintain compressed air pressure 24-7, or be it at a reduced capacity when the presses are not running, News therefore wanted to investigate how they could better control the compressed air system - initially at the Sydney print centre - to meet this requirement as effortlessly and energy efficiently as possible. Having a number of Kaeser compressors in action across all of the major print centres, Taylor therefore called upon Kaeser Compressors for a solution.
Compressed air is used in the distribution centres where the newspapers are collated and bundled ready for despatch.
Kaeser recommended installing a Sigma Air Manager 4.0 (SAM 4.0) compressed air management master system. A PC-based master compressed air management system, the SAM 4.0 allows the compressed air user to manage all of their compressed air production and treatment components from one single unit.
For optimum energy efficiency, the SAM 4.0 utilises adaptive 3-Dadvanced Control to analyse the relationship between three factors; switching losses (start/stop), control losses (idling and frequency conversion) and pressure flexibility (average increase above required pressure). Based on this information and the specific pressure required by the user, the SAM 4.0 then predictively calculates the optimum achievable configuration and adjusts the connected components accordingly.
As a result, just the right amount of compressed air power is provided to suit the specific needs of the application at any given time, with maximum energy efficiency. Continuous fine adjustment with a view to achieving optimum energy efficiency (energy management in accordance with ISO 50001) and the option of predictive, demand-oriented maintenance, also keep life cycle costs to an absolute minimum.
The Sigma Air Manager 4.0 is assisting News Corp Australia in boosting operational reliability and efficiency.
Initially a SAM 4.0 was installed to energy efficiently manage the compressed air system at the Sydney print centre. Taylor commented; ‘We have had an excellent experience with the SAM 4.0 at Sydney. It has made the operation of the compressed air system extremely easy, sequencing the compressors to most efficiently meet our compressed air demand at any given time. The SAM 4.0 has also optimised our energy usage and we have seen this reflected in our associated electricity bills. We have found the SAM 4.0 to be so successful that we have since put them into our Melbourne and Adelaide print centres.’
Kaeser compressed air system at the Adelaide News Corp Australia print centre.
Since the inception of News Corp Australia's successful 1 Degree program in FY2006, the company has achieved a total carbon footprint reduction of 40% to FY2017. News has since continued to initiate ongoing environmental improvements in every aspect of the business.
The SAM 4.0 from Kaeser can control up to 16 compressors and supports operation in 30 languages. Operating status, pressure history, free air delivery, power consumption, as well as maintenance and any error messages can all be easily displayed and analysed on the SAM 4.0 in both real-time and retrospectively from the user-friendly 12-inch colour touchscreen.
*Reference - CMV: August 2018
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Keeping the presses rolling