Graphic Inaugurate New Press

The Graphic Communications Group Limited has chalked up another first in the newspaper printing industry in Ghana with the inauguration of a KBA Comet Press.

The new printing press with a computer to plate (CTP) facility has the capacity to print 75,000 copies of any newspaper per hour irrespective of the pagination
It also has the capacity to print 64-pages with half of the pages in full colour and the flexibility to print colour on any page of the customer’s choice.

The new press also offers opportunities to print colour adverts in small sizes unlike the previous machine.

In 1975, 25years after the company was founded in 1950, the company installed the first web offset colour printing machine in Ghana relegating its competitors to using the letter press technology which was common in the print industry.

The web offset press was a semi-automatic Harris web offset press manufactured in the USA with two production lines.

One of the production lines was a four-unit press and the other a two-unit press.

But to assert itself as the industry leader, the company in 1995 upgraded the version of the web offset colour  machine with the introduction of the Heidelberg Harris press.

The campany was also the first to use computerised editorial set-up for news production, the first to use the CTP technology.

The facility has a 1,100  kva standby generator, an air compressed and a central airconditioning system to maintain the temperature required for the machine to work efficiently.

Close to the printing hall is the paper conditioning room from where an electric forklift sends the reels to the printing hall for mounting on the splicer. Attached to the printing hall is a bulk materials warehouse for newsprint, inks and chemicals.

Industry players have commended the GCGL for taking the giant step to position itself for the competition, especially in view of the re-launch of its website for a synergy between print and online journalism.