CT Presses Are Not Viable For Newspapers - KBA

CT Presses are not a viable alternative for newspapers, according to German press manufacturer KBA.

CT Presses are not a viable alternative for newspapers, according to German press manufacturer KBA.

Although KBA has had almost 10 years experience in computer to press for digital sheetfed offset it said it does not believe that the technology is sufficiently advanced to make it economically viable for newspaper production, nor does it see any prospect of such an advance in the foreseeable future.

KBA commented that even Wifag had admitted that process-less plates suitable for newspaper production (with relatively long print runs and extremely high production speeds) will not be available within the next three to four years.

And if they ever become available, no one can say today what they will cost and what kind of service life they will have, added the company.

Klaus Schmidt, marketing director of KBA said: "The idea of changing the plates, and then imaging them on-press, cannot compare with offline computer to plate combined with high-speed automatic plate changing.

Newspaper printers must calculate in minutes and cannot afford to experiment with economically dubious technology.

Whatever the marketing promises, pre-drilling holes in the side frames, in the hope of later being able to retrofit more cost-effective and less sensitive imaging units for newspaper-compatible re-imageable plates, is neither a benchmark innovation nor does it generate confidence among potential users." He added that if the situation should change and computer to press presented a serious challenge to computer to plate, KBA would have the expertise to offer such capability within a relatively short time frame.

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