APSOLUT.net Home | Contact
   
 
   
  San Francisco Chronicle signs Letter of Intent with Automated Publishing Solutions to integrate their new Sunday Packaging Facility.
  November 3, 2003
 
 

Construction is underway in Union City, CA to build a new Sunday Packaging Facility for the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. The Union City Production Center will house a new Heidelberg NP632 inserter, Quipp 501 stackers, Signode strappers, as well as, bundle conveyors, bundle labeling units, and a palletizer from Schur Packaging Systems. A new 22,000 sq ft warehouse will be constructed to store preprints for the new Sunday and existing daily inserting operation.

 

Automated Publishing Solutions, Inc. (APSOLUT) was chosen to thread all of the packaging equipment together to form an integrated Workcell. Fred Dal Broi, Vice President of Production, and Dan Couto, Director of Production are leading the effort for the San Francisco Chronicle.

 

"Our vision from the start has been that we have a fully integrated workcell approach that allows us to reconcile and track any and all changes in the system from a single source production management system. We could have purchased separate pieces of equipment and not linked them together, we don't want that. The workcell approach ties all the equipment together as one, both functionally and systematically." - Dan Couto, November 14, 2003

Future site for the new preprint warehouse.
 

Future site for the new Sunday Packaging Facility.
 

 
 
  APSOLUT meets with the San Francisco Chronicle at the Mission Street office in downtown San Francisco. From left to right: Tim Hanlon, Consultant for the Chronicle, Wayne Brown, APSOLUT Project Manager, Brad Calhoun, APSOLUT Solution Architect, Fred Dal Broi, Vice President for the Chronicle, David Ferguson, APSOLUT Chief Software Architect, and Dan Couto, Director of Production for the Chronicle.
   
 

ASPOLUT is working with Heidelberg and Schur to develop functional descriptions that will be used to integrate each system into a Workcell. A vendor integration workshop was held on October 29, 2003 between Heidelberg, Schur, and APSOLUT to discuss the project vision, scope, goals & objectives and vendor responsibilities. The key drivers for this project include the creation of a Sunday newspaper packaging facility with no single point of failure in the system, reducing operating costs, accomodating high levels of accoutability from packaging through delivery and the ability to provide automatic, "on the fly" zone changeovers.

 

A database and all of the equipment required to package preprints for distribution will be connected together to form an integrated Workcell. The APSOLUT Workcell Controll System is fully integrated with the Burt Preprint Planning System using the Open Control Interface. The APSOLUT System will completely replace the OEM control system including: the ICON computer, the Main Drive PLC, and the OEM machine controller.

 

The APSOLUT Workcell Control System includes the following hardware:

 

  • APSOLUT Workcell Controller
  • APSOLUT Workcell Interface
  • APSOLUT Enclosure
  • Hopper Miss Sensor Upgrade
  • Machine Marquee
  • Downstream Marquees
  • Workcell Gripper Interface Kit
  • Workcell Stacker Interface Kit
  • Workcell Bundle Labeler Interface Kit
  • Workcell Strapper Interface Kit
  • Workcell Palletizer Interface Kit

 

The APSOLUT Workcell Control System includes the following software:

 

  • APSOLUT Machine Controller
  • APSOLUT Graphical User Interface
  • APSOLUT Database Interface
  • APSOLUT Marquee Interface
  • APSOLUT Stacker Interface
  • APSOLUT Labeler Interface
  • APSOLUT Strapper Interface
  • APSOLUT Palletizer Interface
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional

 

The Sunday Packaging Facility will be ready to receive equipment on April 1, 2004. Equipment testing, integration, and commissioning will be performed from April 15 through May 1, 2004. Acceptance testing and training will be held from May 1 through May 15, 2004. The entire Workcell will be fully integrated and ready for production by May 15, 2004.
   
 

For more information on Packaging Automation and the APSOLUT Workcell Control System, please contact us at your earliest convenience.

© COPYRIGHT 2003-2004 Automated Publishing Solutions, Inc.
All rights reserved.