Manual palletizing of printed newspapers was becoming increasingly ineffective at News International, publisher of several of London's prominent dailies.

Thicker newspapers meant fewer copies per bundle, and more bundles to palletize. Yet, new government regulations limited the weight of loads workers could handle manually.

Meanwhile, employees had to work faster to position each bundle, often lifting and stretching to reach across the 4-foot pallet to even out the stack. And speed was certainly critical with newsstands expecting their deliveries on time each day.

As a result, 12 automatic palletizers with automated stretchwrappers were added to the operation. Throughput increased 50% and labor requirements declined significantly as worker ergonomics improved considerably.

The new system has nearly a mile of accumulation conveyor as well as a separate "race-track" conveyor that loops around the mezzanine between the 16 printing presses. Each sub-system of the racetrack is made up of three conveyors with four merges that use accumulation to balance out the flow of papers without slowing down the presses.

As papers come off the presses, they are directed to a palletizer that stacks them in layers to form a bundle. Each palletizer can form up to 68 bundles per minute, which is the output of two presses. A sheet dispenser inserts paper between layers of unevenly shaped bundles to stabilize the load before stretchwrapping.

"Previously, we could only stack 50 bundles to a pallet because we were constrained by 'man height,'" explains Mike Gray, chief engineer, projects department. "The palletizers allow us to increase our standard to 70 bundles to a pallet."

All of the machinery is controlled by a production management system, which oversees the presses, inserts and wrapping stations. The control system provides for many possible combinations of conveyor delivery routes to ensure the system is always running at optimum speed.

Improving throughput and adjusting to the new lifting regulations were the initial goals of the project. But in addition to meeting those, News International now has the ability to shorten its production time so that the window to include late-breaking stories stays open longer.