FIRST IN DOMINION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20625, 28 May 1935, Page 7

FIRST IN DOMINION.

Magazine Press for “ Woman's Weekly.” MODERN 1 PRINTING. A variety of interesting features is embodied in the design of the 64-page rotary' magazine press which was recently installed by New Zealand Newspapers, Ltd. The machine is the only one of its kind in the Dominion and has already created considerable interest among members of the printing trade. Specially built to the order of New Zealand Newspapers, Limited, by R. Hoe and Co., Ltd., of London, the press weighs forty tons, and was shipped to New Zealand in sixty cases, weighing up to a ton and a half each. Machines of this kind are very costly to construct, requiring as they do the services of highly technical engineers. Once delivered it was assembled and mounted on special concrete foundations by the company’s own experts. The two electric motors necessary for the driving of the press are installed under the flooring. The new press is capable of producing magazines of up to sixty-four pages, ready folded, at a speed up to 12,000 copies per hour. Besides being folded in book form, the magazines are automatically counted by the machine, and delivered in quantities of a set number. High-Grade Printing. The new press, which is entirely British made, was installed primarily to produce the “ N.Z. Woman’s Weekly ” and was used for the first time to print the latest issue of that journal. Later it is likely that the press will be utilised to print other of the company’s journals. The press is also eminently suitable for printing high-grade catalogues. Differing from the ordinary newspaper press, it can produce booklets printed on high-grade calendared paper. The paper used on the press is in reels averaging between 750 and 8001 b. In addition to the press itself, special machinery had to be manufactured to produce the stereo plates from which the “ N.Z. Woman’s Weekly ” and other journals are printed. Outside experts who have seen the new plant and the general conditions under which the printing is done—light and atmospheric conditions play an important part in first-grade printing—have given generous praise to the press and to its installation. The importation of such machinery will enable work that at present is often done outside the country to be done more economically in the Dominion.