Bliss welcomes public to new facility
JANESVILLE — After they finish reading The Janesville Gazette on Sunday, community members will have the chance to get up close and personal with the press that published it.
Bliss Communications is sponsoring a community open house from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday at its new printing and distribution facility on Janesville’s east side.
Visitors will be able to tour the $22 million facility and see the state-of-the-art KBA Comet printing press in action when it runs special commemorative editions at 2 and 4 p.m.
The 55,000-square-foot facility opened in October. It prints the Gazette seven days a week and the Monroe Times six days a week. Other publications round out the printing schedule.
In the plant’s plate-making operation, electronic images of the newspaper pages are etched onto thin aluminum plates to be used in the printing process. The images are transmitted from the Gazette’s downtown offices by a microwave link.
Paper is supplied to the press in rolls of various widths, each weighing approximately 1,000 pounds. Paper enters the printing units from the bottom and is printed with each color on both sides at the same time. By the time the paper reaches the top of the printing unit, it is completely printed.
A “folder” at the center of the press gathers the sheets of paper or “webs” and folds them into a continuous “ribbon” of paper. At the bottom of the folder, a rotary knife cuts the ribbon into individual newspapers.
The “mailroom” is the traditional name for the department that puts inserts into the paper and sorts and prepares them for the carriers. Papers flow to the mailroom from the press on a gripper conveyor system. Each plastic gripper holds an individual paper, allowing the ink to begin drying without smearing on another copy. From the gripper conveyor, the papers are dropped into a stacker and are counted by a laser and batched into pre-determined bundles.
The bundles are transferred via a roller conveyor to an inserter that opens the newspaper and places inserts into each copy.
After the newspaper is filled with inserts, it travels by gripper conveyor to another stacker, where it is stacked into a bundle. This time, a piece of protective paper called a “bottom wrap” is put on the bottom of the bundle, and a plastic strap ties the bundle securely.
A mailroom operator controls the bundle distribution system and communicates schedule information to the drivers outside via an FM radio transmitter. Drivers tune their car radio to a specific frequency to learn what door they should be at, and when.
Gazette staff will be on hand Sunday, and WCLO/WJVL will provide a live remote and music.
IF YOU GO
What: Bliss Communications’ community open house at The Janesville Gazette Printing & Distribution plant.
When: 1 to 5 p.m., Sunday, with special press runs at 2 and 4 p.m.
Where: 333 S. Wuthering Hills Dr., Janesville.
Jun 21, 2008 at 1:16 p.m.
Suggest removal
When I took journalism at U-Rock many years ago, one of the highlights was visiting the Gazette building and seeing the printing facility up close. It's really quite amazing even if you're used to a collating copier, because this is like one of those the size of a house.
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