KBA's Hybrid Advances At Drupa

KBA has just announced it will be showing its latest developments in what it calls hybrid technology at Drupa 2004.

KBA has just announced it will be showing its latest developments in its hybrid technology at Drupa 2004.

The company claimed one breakthrough that would be certain to cause a stir is the further development of hybrid inks with either low-odour or odourless properties.

The use of hybrid inks, with subsequent all-over UV varnishing, achieves higher gloss values than are possible from a double-coating process.

The gloss is also on a par with that of most offline alternatives, said the company.

KBA's print technologists in Radebeul have been working since the late 1990s on the use of hybrid inks in sheetfed offset.

Their evaluations of long-term hybrid tests, furthermore, have also indicated significantly reduced drawback effects after 72 hours compared to the currently ink technology.

Even though other inline coating possibilities are today able to offer similar gloss results, the high production speeds of a hybrid press still represent an important advantage.

The process stability of the hybrid technology is not an issue provided the inks and auxiliary media recommended by KBA and its partners are used.

At the same time, the combination of hybrid and oil-based inks, permits spot finishes with interesting matt-gloss effects without the otherwise indispensable photopolymer plates.

With this technology, it is furthermore possible to control such matt-gloss effects and to realise spot finishes with extremely fine structures in offset-quality register.

Even gentle gloss gradations can be produced with ultimate process reliability stated the company.

Through careful selection of suitable material combinations (hybrid and conventional inks, oil-based varnish and UV varnish), a broad diversity of gloss levels and effects, such as matt satin, pearlescent, soft touch or relief, can be achieved added KBA.

A typical standard hybrid configuration would comprise a five-colour press with coating tower, UV interdeck dryer, a delivery extension accommodating infrared and hot air dryers, and UV final drying.

For certain applications, a second UV interdeck dryer might be used.

KBA claims that the investment outlay for a 3B press would be 20% less than that for a double-coating configuration.

Power consumption and work centre costs are significantly reduced and the hybrid press would also have enhanced flexibility.

KBA supplies hybrid presses across the whole product range from the half-format Rapida 74 to the super-large-format Rapida 205.

The company also said it has delivered over 100 Rapida presses with hybrid equipment to customers around the world, as well as having retrofitted a host of existing presses for hybrid production.

Whilst competitors have been implementing hybrid technology, KBA said it has filed for numerous hybrid technology patents, some of which are already protected by patent rights in the USA, whilst others are pending.

KBA is advising that because of its patents a licence agreement had already been signed with one print enterprise working with non-KBA presses.

KBA also said that advertisements where there is a protected product or with a protected technology might infringe patent rights as patent applications provide provisional protection that would take full effect should the patents be granted.

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