"We had serious issues related of downtime and high wastage in our press room and that prompted us to look at the condition of our press and evaluate the need for an upgrade", said Mr. Syam Zakiril Ikmar of Star Malaysia Group in his presentation about the press upgrade project that The Star started in 2012. Syam was speaking at the ANP 2015 conference in Bangkok organised by ASEAN Newspaper Printers.

The Star had frequent downtime due to clogging of spray bars, high linting and regular replacement of spares. The Star operates three Goss Colorliners double width double circumference presses with 2:5:5 folders with capacity to print 96 pages tabloid @ 80000 cph.

As the press was already 10 years old in 2012, the need for upgrading it was apparent. However, several questions needed to be answered before deciding on the project. What is the current condition of the press? What is the market requirement? What add ons are required to sustain the future and importantly what capital investments are needed?

"To start with, we took the help of GOSS to do a mechanical audit of the press and that gave us a clear picture of the condition of the press". Based on the recommendations, The Star decided to replace press controls and drives, replace the frequently clogging spray bars with an advanced version, which has a cover to protect the nozzles from ink and paper dust and prevent clogging, install automated register and cut-off control and also install a new web cleaning system that sucks out paper dust from the surface of the paper. Infact, about 7 to 8 kg of dust are collected every month from the paper surface. Apart from this, a major folder upgrade was also done to remove rusty and worn-out parts, replace pin assembly, tucking shafts and the conventional slitters are replaced with a motorised nose slitter on the former board. Currently, repairs are going on to correct some of the corroded blanket cylinders.