Success in a complex Bundeswehr tender process

Rapida duo for Bundeswehr map specialists

“What gunpowder did for war, the printing press has done for the mind,” the 19th-century US poli-

tician Wendell Phillips once said. It is thus quite natural that the Bundeswehr also possesses such ‘weapons’.



Centrepieces in the freshly renovated and extensively modernised printshop of the Geoinformation Centre of the German Army – or ZGeoBw for short – at the Mercator Military Base in Euskirchen are two ultra-modern Rapida 105 PRO presses, one a four-colour, the other a five-colour configuration, which were commissioned in December 2018. They are the largest printing presses owned by the Bundeswehr.

A long process, but well worth waiting for the result: Printer Patrick Stümer, his superior Wolfram Schiffer, Ralf Engels (sheet offset sales, Heinrich Steuber), Captain Tim Bollig and head of department Alfons Venker-Metarp (l-r) are more than happy with the outcome of the project


Every corner of the world

The Geoinformation Service is almost as old as the Bundeswehr itself and was established in Bad Godesberg in 1956, shortly after the army was founded. Its central task is one of the most important support services within the army, namely to supply the various duty stations and troops in practically all services with maps and satellite images from every corner of the world – from overview maps for headquarters to special maps for fighter pilots and ground forces. In addition, the printshop supplies both the NATO partner armies and numerous land surveyor’s offices, as well as producing geographical documents, brochures and posters, where required.


The maps are printed in run lengths between 500 and 25,000 copies. They are stored and distributed as flat, unfolded sheets, as the print centre does not possess facilities for in-house further processing of the large-format prints beyond simple trimming. Production was originally spread between several locations, before the move to Euskirchen in 1985 enabled concentration at a single site.

Europe-wide tender process

The Bundeswehr would not be the Bundeswehr if it were not to plan also the investment in new printing technology with military precision. When the previous machines – two four-colour Rapida 105 presses – were purchased in 2001 and 2003, they were calculated for a useful service life of approx. 15 years. Accordingly, a comprehensive Europe-wide tender process was started in 2015.


“We were completely open as far as the choice of manufacturer was concerned,” says Captain Tim Bollig, the authorised representative of the Cyber and Information Domain Service (CIR). Two manu-

facturers participated in the tender and were visited by an army delegation which brought along identical print data, inks and paper to produce a series of test prints. Bollig: “In this way, we could ensure that the results would be fully comparable. After all, we wanted to identify the objectively most economical and most technically advanced option.”


Thousands of maps can be called up directly from the ZGeoBw stores, including both civilian maps and high-precision military maps of practically every corner of the world


Demand for precision

And as it turned out, flexibility was also a key criterion, because the purchase coincided with a project to modernise the printshop building, including installation of a new air conditioning and ventilation system – in other words, a phase characterised by continuously changing conditions. It was not least this requirement of flexibility which tipped the scales in favour of the offer submitted by Koenig & Bauer sales partner Heinrich Steuber from Mönchengladbach. That is not to say that the technical aspects were irrelevant factors in the decision: “Our ground and aviation maps comprise a multitude of very fine lines in different colours,” says printshop manager Wolfram Schiffer, who like his twelve employees is actually a civilian. “These hairlines call for extremely precise colour and register control in the press.” Schiffer also praises the very fast makeready and the minimal waste when setting up a new job on the two Rapidas.


When asked why the Bundeswehr has not simply outsourced these jobs to external printers, his answer is only logical: “Because we are cheaper, independent and always available.” Following the modernisation of the printshop, parallel to continued production, the site was handed over for installation of the two Rapidas in October 2018 – until that point, they had been kept in storage at Koenig & Bauer.

Fighting on multiple fronts

The final renovation tasks were even performed after installation of the new presses. ZGeoBw head of department Alfons Venker-Metarp: “It was sometimes as if we were fighting on multiple fronts. But Steuber accompanied us admirably through all the adversities.” Technical acceptance by an expert from the German Printing and Media Industries Federation (bvdm) and practical instruction for the press operators followed in December 2018. In January 2019, another supplier also installed a new, faster platesetter, which now enables a complete set of plates to be supplied within ten minutes.

Andreas Tietz

Questions:

Martin Dänhardt




Background photo: Everything is spick and span in the freshly renovated and extensively modernised printshop at the Mercator Military Base in Euskirchen. From here, the army geoinformation centre ZGeoBw supplies high-quality maps and other materials to both military and civilian authorities
Foto: ZGeoBw