Biggest Press's Speed Helps Win New Print Business

KBA North America has installed and commissioned a Rapida 205 81-inch seven-colour press, plus coater at the National Print Group in the USA.

KBA North America has installed and commissioned a Rapida 205 81-inch seven-colour press, plus coater at the National Print Group in the USA.

The 81-inch Rapida 205 is claimed to be the world's largest sheetfed litho press weighing in at almost 600,000 lbs.

Since its installation the Rapida 205 has been giving higher quality and speed over its competitors and penetrating new and existing work from customers, said KBA.

Within the past three months, National Print Group has signed three new clothing retailers as customers for point-of-sale (POS) jobs due to the Rapida's seven-colour capabilities and suitability for a variety of substrates.

Currently, the Rapida 205 is on a three-shift-a-day, five days-a-week schedule.

However, National Print Group plans to expand that schedule to 24 hours, six days-a-week with a fourth press crew.

The press has become a money-maker and its integrated Logotronic press management system helps control all the data coming in and out of the press for maximum net throughput, added KBA.

George Diamantis, chairman of National Print Group, parent of National Posters, said: "We are a successful printer because we are constantly responding to the needs of our customers.

Our new KBA Rapida 205 press enables us to present our customers with more print opportunities and options than ever before." The Rapida 205 is claimed to have a fast cycle time, whilst providing more consistency with longer runs and enhanced quality and cost efficiencies, together with bringing all jobs in house for total job control.

Diamantis added: "There is no single competitor that is able to do what we can with this press or have the ability to offer the variety of printing we offer, from digital to screen to litho.

We are the only printer in the south east of the USA to have this type of press.

It enhances and completes our current large format capabilities and having a competitive edge is so important in today's market and KBA's partnership helped to give us this edge." National Print Group's roster of existing presses is capable of printing up to six colours.

The new KBA Rapida 205 with seven colours allows the firm to take advantage of the growth in multi-colour printing and the trend toward using opaque whites, metallic and custom logo colours, said the company.

The signage market represents 60 per cent of National Print Group's current business and by installing the Rapida 205 with hybrid UV capabilities, the firm is able to print signage on a wider variety and more rigid substrates, it added.

Joel Stuart, president of National Posters, commented: "The acquisition of the new Rapida 205 was to pursue new markets being printed on non-porous substrates, as well as to penetrate the market for new business from existing customers." For example, the first job produced on the KBA Rapida 205 was for a four-up retail display side panel of NASCAR driver Ken Schrader for McKee Foods, a bakery known for making 'Little Debbie' and 'Sunbelt' snacks.

National Posters used its newest press because it can print on 40mm styrene.

Scott Hale, purchasing agent for McKee Foods, said: "It's exciting for us to be a part of the launch of the Rapida 205 press.

As a national company with a growing international business, it's important to us to have access to the most advanced print media technology available.

NPG continually impresses us with its quality and service, and new systems, as well as its competitive prices." Joel Stuart added: "We invested in this press in response to the needs of our clients.

They are demanding larger products printed on increasingly diverse materials with more unique qualities, greater weight and increased thickness.

Forty millimetre styrene is an extremely thick substrate to print on, but one that this press is able to handle." In addition to the side panel created for the NASCAR display, National Print Group is also printing a 60mm styrene header for McKee Foods at its Kennesaw plant.

According to NPG chairman, Diamantis, investing US$10 million in the KBA Rapida 205 enabled the company to better serve core clients such as McKee.

He explained: "We now offer a complete package.

We can enlist the presses at all of our facilities to fulfill the multimedia printing requirements of our clients both efficiently and economically.

Our new KBA Rapida 205 press incorporates KBA's unique Denistronic S xy-axis spectral and density measuring system that ensures total consistency throughout the run.

The press can also output four times the size of a typical 40-inch sheet with the same quality.

In addition, the make-ready times are extremely low due to the press's fully automatic plate mounting and registration systems." Some of the Rapida 205's features include de-clutching in every unit, automated make-ready including fully automatic plate changing, as well as wash-up on blanket, plate and impression cylinders as standard features.

The Rapida 205 can also run stocks from 80lb to 48pt, added KBA.

Changing stocks does not require any gripper setting adjustments and the press also has a complete UV system for printing on plastic and other specialty substrates, said the company.

Diamantis continued: "We look forward to sharing the capabilities of the KBA Rapida 205 with our clients.

It not only offers substantial cost savings to companies like McKee Foods but it expands the possibilities for print marketing and advertising." Kerry Reedy, vice president of sales for National Posters, explained: "This press also gives us the ability to more quickly respond to the needs of our customers.

In addition, our customers now have the ability to print both short-run and long-run jobs with variability.

We can use our current digital technology to print the variable message or print prototypes of holiday store advertising.

Once they are approved, we can print the entire job on the Rapida 205." And Joel Stuart commented about the press's installation: "We were extremely happy with the assistance provided by KBA for the installation of the press.

It went much quicker than we had planned and our press crews had exceptional training in both Germany and in KBA's US headquarters in Vermont." To prepare for the world's largest press, National Posters readied its Chattanooga, Tennessee plant by providing a new glass-enclosed pressroom, which was built to house the press with enough concrete to hold the 600,000lb press.

Surrounding the pressroom is a new customer lounge and viewing area to watch jobs being printed.

To accommodate the larger sheet size, National Posters upgraded its pre-press department by adding two new larger-format Kodak and Creo platesetters.

Founded in 1957 with 12 employees as National Posters, National Print Group has grown to over 400 employees in five plants.

National Print Group is now ranked in the top 125 printers in the USA.

Today, the firm is a resource for outdoor advertising and point-of-purchase (POP) advertising production.

National Print Group caters to a nationwide clientele of advertising agencies and corporate clients.

Its Chattanooga plant employs 150 people.

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