Fairfax Media (Tamworth Press)

Fairfax Media's Tamworth Press printing operation relied on an aging control and drive system that posed escalating safety risks to personnel working around high-speed newspaper press machinery. Industrial printing presses involve numerous pinch points, rotating components, and high-torque drives — environments where inadequate guarding or unreliable emergency-stop logic can result in serious injury. Beyond the human cost, non-compliance with Australia's AS 4024 machine safety standard exposed the business to regulatory liability. A further constraint shaped the project: any replacement system had to accommodate routine maintenance access without compromising safety integrity or disrupting tight print production schedules.

Rockwell Automation engineered an integrated control and safety architecture around the Allen-Bradley GuardLogix safety controller, which combines standard programmable logic control and safety logic in a single platform — eliminating the need for a separate safety relay layer. PowerFlex DC drives replaced legacy drive hardware, while Sipha safety sensors and physical guarding were installed at hazard zones across the press. PanelView graphic terminals provided operators with real-time system status and fault visibility. The GuardLogix architecture was configured to achieve AS 4024 compliance, with safety functions designed to allow authorized maintenance access under controlled conditions rather than requiring full machine lockout for routine tasks — a critical design decision that drove operator adoption.

The Tamworth Press achieved an industry-leading safety record of over 2,300 consecutive days without a lost-time injury following implementation — a benchmark that reflects both system reliability and consistent operator engagement with the new controls. The installation met full compliance with AS 4024 Australian machine safety standards. Critically, the safety guarding architecture did not impede maintenance or production workflows, which is a common failure mode in industrial safety retrofits where overly restrictive systems are bypassed by operators under time pressure. A monthly safety checklist process was integrated alongside the hardware controls to sustain performance over time.

• Designing safety systems to accommodate legitimate maintenance access — rather than defaulting to full lockout — significantly improves operator compliance and reduces workaround behavior.
• Consolidating standard control and safety logic into a single GuardLogix platform reduces wiring complexity and simplifies validation against safety standards like AS 4024.
• A sustained safety record of 2,300+ days is not achieved by hardware alone; pairing automated guard monitoring with structured manual inspection routines (monthly checklists) extends effectiveness.
• When upgrading aging press control systems, validating against the applicable national safety standard (AS 4024 in Australia) early in the design phase prevents costly rework at commissioning.