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News Release from: KBA North America | Subject: Sensoric Infeed System (SIS)
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 04 April 2007
Sidelay System Cuts On-Press Sheet Feed
Problems
KBA North America has reported that its sheet in-feed process, known as the no-sidelay Sensoric Infeed System (SIS) has seen an increase in growth.
KBA North America has reported that its sheet in-feed process, known as the no-sidelay Sensoric Infeed System (SIS) has seen an increase in growth The company said that SIS has become a key selling point of the 18,000 sheet per hour Rapida 105 41-inch format press on the world market, since it is claimed to reduce, or bypass troublesome stages in sheet feeding
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 10 Apr 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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KBA North America added that one in three Rapida 105 presses is delivered with the SIS.
The company explained that printing press manufacturers and the graphics industry had for many years been trying to simplify the process of feeding and aligning the sheet in a sheetfed offset press, a process complicated by the high running speeds involved.
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One of the chief aims was to make the process stable and reliable without the need for manual intervention, even with frequent changes between different printing substrates.
KBA said that in traditional mechanical or pneumatic sidelays, such as those still the norm even in modern sheetfed offset presses, the incoming sheet is first braked, then stabilised in the front lays and aligned at the sidelay tabs.
That happens in a pulling process involving many subsidiary steps before the sheet goes through the swing infeed.
In KBA's SIS, a sensor continually scans the edge of the sheet.
That is claimed to eliminate the risk of the scanning result being negatively influenced by the paper fibres.
The gripper bar is pre-aligned in the single-revolution transfer drum according to the information transmitted about the position of the sheet edge.
That way, the bar is already roughly aligned when it receives the sheet.
Precise lateral displacement of the gripper bar enables the sheet to be exactly positioned before being transferred to the first impression cylinder.
The incoming sheet can be adjusted precisely along the entire route from the swing gripper to the impression cylinder, which means there is almost twice as much time available as in traditional systems, added the company.
That is essential, given that up to five sheets per second must be aligned in register at production speeds of 18,000 sheets per hour.
One of the claimed key advantages of the KBA system is that the feed process in the front lays is not interrupted by a sidelay process.
Because of that, there is more time for stabilisation and alignment of the sheet.
SIS reduces malfunctions and enables a more precise infeed register to be achieved both with thin material, which tends to buckle, and rigid sheets, which can jump out of the front lays at high speed.
There is no need to adjust the previous sidelay manually when changing printing substrates.
Mechanical damage to sensitive printing substrates is also eliminated.
Thirty machines with SIS were delivered to KBA customers in 2005 and the trend is on the rise, said the company.
Sales in 2007 are expected to be eight or nine times what they were in 2005.
The feed system is in use on special coating presses, such as a 14-unit Rapida 105 at Bolger Vision Beyond Print, Minneapolis (USA).
"The SIS is the best sidelay feature we've seen on a press," said Don Smith, pressroom manager at Bolger.
"Everything is automatic.
We don't have to worry about setting up the side guide for different types of stock.
Since we can't see SIS, we tend to forget that it is there but it has certainly saved us time and allows our press operators time to do other jobs because they don't have to worry about adjusting the sidelay.
Another positive feature of the KBA SIS system is that it has no side guide wheel and, therefore, we have no side guide wheel marks.".
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