The Kitsap Sun in Bremerton, Wash., is upgrading its 35-year-old press in a four-phased project that includes giving the paper variable web-width capabilities.

The Sun tapped Pressline Services Inc. to oversee the rebuild, which will span a web-width reduction, control upgrade, digital page packs and an autopaster to replace the current manual system, according to Ron Muhleman, director of operations at the E.W. Scripps Co.-owned daily.

The first part of the project, to begin this summer, will give the paper’s 1973 vintage Harris 1650 6-unit doublewide press variable web-width capabilities, ranging from 44 inches to 48 inches, he said.

The Sun (daily, 28,922; Sunday, 32,157) will convert to a 46-inch-wide format from its current 50-inch width when the cutdown is completed, Muhleman said. Cutoff is 22.75 inches.

Acutech LLC will provide the tool-less lockups to support the reduction.

Following the cutdown, crews will then align the press’ units, folders and reels. “We’ve had a number of earthquakes over the years,” Muhleman said, “so this should help with printing and registration.”

The third part of the project will deal with the press’ controls and DC drives, which date back to when the machine was installed.

Controls and drives

Rockwell Automation will upgrade the controls with a PressView console to support remote setting of ink and water and will also install its PrintLogix QE app to allow operators to create impositions with associated presets and RIP interface data. Rockwell will also convert the machine’s DC drives to AC power.

Controls Group Inc., meantime, will supply digital page packs.

The final phase will be the installation of two autopasters, which will eliminate hand-pasting, Muhleman said.

Frank Wolfe, Scripps’ director of newspaper operations, said the publisher opted to upgrade the press rather than replace it because purchasing a new press would have also required the construction of a new plant.

“Bricks and mortar along with new equipment just did not make sense,” he said.

The upgrade will permit the Sun to improve its print capabilities but will also let the paper further exploit the commercial market, Muhleman said. The paper, which launched a commercial printing division five years ago, now prints a number of weeklies, monthlies, tabs and special sections, he said.

“We have made this work. We used to run only one shift a day to print that paper. Now we have two to three shifts a day and there is more work to be had,” Muhleman said. “At the end of this project we’ll be state-of-the-art.”