Tabloid printing press and retrofitting method
View Patent ↗A 3 by 2 tabloid printing press includes a plate cylinder having a straight across lock-up and a blanket cylinder contacting the plate cylinder; a blanket cylinder printing a web; and a folder superstructure having at least one slitter for slitting the web into three ribbons and a folder for forming a tabloid newspaper from the three ribbons.
1. A method for retrofitting a double wide 4 by 2 printing press to form a 3 by 2 tabloid printing press comprising the steps of:
retrofitting a double wide 4 by 2 printing unit of the 4 by 2 printing press to form a 3 by 2 tabloid printing unit by removing a 4 by 2 plate cylinder positioned to print a web and replacing the 4 by 2 plate cylinder with a 3 by 2 plate cylinder positioned to print the web.
2. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising providing a modified slitter downstream of the 3 by 2 plate cylinder arranged to slit the web to into a ⅔ ribbon and a ⅓ ribbon.
3. The method as recited in claim 2 further comprising providing a tab slitter downstream of the modified slitter arranged to slit the ⅔ ribbon into two additional ⅓ ribbons.
4. The method as recited in claim 3 wherein the modified slitter and the tab slitter are arranged such that each ⅓ ribbon is 18.5 inches wide.
5. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the 4 by 2 printing press is configured to create a regular tabloid or Broadsheet newspaper and is retrofitted into the 3 by 2 printing press configured to create a Berliner format tabloid newspaper.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the 4 by 2 plate cylinder includes plate lock-ups that are staggered 90 degrees with respect to each other, and wherein the 3 by 2 plate cylinder includes plate lock-ups that are all aligned straight across the 3 by 2 plate cylinder and are not staggered.
7. A method of configuring and operating a printing press comprising:
retrofitting a double wide 4 by 2 printing unit of the 4 by 2 printing press to form a 3 by 2 tabloid printing unit by removing a 4 by 2 plate cylinder positioned to print a web and replacing the 4 by 2 plate cylinder with a 3 by 2 plate cylinder positioned to print the web;
providing a modified slitter section configured to slit the web into three ribbons;
printing the web with the 3 by 2 plate cylinder;
slitting the web into the three ribbons using the modified slitter section, each ribbon having a width equal to ⅓ of a width of the web; and
folding and cross cutting the ribbons to create a Berliner format tabloid.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the 4 by 2 plate cylinder includes plate lock-ups that are staggered 90 degrees with respect to each other, and wherein the 3 by 2 plate cylinder includes plate lock-ups that are all aligned straight across the 3 by 2 plate cylinder and are not staggered.