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Printing Presses and Machinery (New and Used, Service and Repair)
News Release from: KBA | Subject: Rapida 74 G
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 03 February 2005
Waterless Press At Centre Of Cut-Price
Print
Seven months after KBA unveiled its Rapida 74 G waterless offset press at Drupa 2004, a four-colour coater version with delivery extension went live at Pinguin Druck, Berlin.
Last December, seven months after KBA unveiled its Rapida 74 G waterless offset press at Drupa 2004, a four-colour coater version with delivery extension went live printing paper, board and plastic film at Pinguin Druck, Berlin It is one of the first two presses in Germany, the second being inaugurated at around the same time at Wolfgang Klinger in Munich
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 12 May 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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The Marks-3zet in Hall 3 at Drupa saw a delegation from Swedish printing house Cela Grafiska, signed up for a four-colour KBA Rapida 74 G coater press.
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KBA's Rapida 74 G press has gathered another prize.
Three presses of the same type came on stream some months ago in Sweden and Denmark.
KBA said that Pinguin Druck started up with nothing in 1997 - no customers and no permanent press crew.
But since then clever marketing and rapid consolidation have enabled the company to expand its workforce to 22, most of them young.
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Visitors to Offset and Digitaldruck W Klinger in Munich need not look around for the keepsakes from the era of analogue printing which are often found elsewhere.
Cambridge Newspapers Expands With KBA Performance
Cambridge Newspapers is planning to expand its newspaper contract printing with a pressroom investment in back to back colour facilities.
Dutch Printer Extends KBA Production Capacity
Dutch printing house Janssen Pers Rotatiedruk, a longstanding KBA customer based in Gennep, has ordered an extension to the single-width Continent web press it installed in 1999.
This year, the entire enterprise - pre-press, wet offset production and finishing - is moving to a new production site in Marienburger Strasse where the Rapida 74 G has been installed.
Alongside a prime location near the city centre Pinguin has a second recipe for success.
A third of its customers use the firm's fixed-price offers for gang-printing the most popular forms of advertising media - postcards, flyers and posters.
To take advantage of the offer customers must agree to fixed deadlines for delivering print data and collecting prints and to pre-specified stock types and run lengths (1,000 or 5,000).
Sheet sizes and sheet travel, colours, choice of substrate and logistical pre-selection are standardised for greater cost-efficiency.
The Rapida 74 G, which expanded printing capacity from six to 10 units, will be included in this cut-price deal since its one-man operation, semi-automatic plate changing and automatic wash-ups for blankets, impression cylinders and anilox ink-forme rollers make it economic even for short runs added KBA.
The press is being put into two-shift operation at the earliest opportunity.
A lot of print jobs, such as postcards, specify four colours plus coating.
So managing director Alexander Mende was in no doubt that the Rapida 74 G had to feature an inline aqueous coater and a delivery extension for two hot-air and IR dryers, according to KBA.
"Nowadays, coating is a must if you want high-impact and the ability to finish prints without delay," said Mende.
A new automatic screen printer was installed directly beside the Rapida 74 G in January to support high-gloss spot UV coating.
Jobs outside the company's core business are contracted out.
When a new press was first mooted, Mende was undecided whether to go for a 74 Karat or a Rapida 74 G.
"The keyless Gravuflow inking units, with their standardised plate inking, deliver a consistently high print quality from the first sheet to the last, regardless of the minders daily form.
In my eyes, this is the offset process of the future," he claimed.
Another reason for choosing the Rapida 74 G was that the pre-press department already ran two Lotem thermal CTP platesetters suitable for waterless plates.
"It makes us more flexible.
If we have a problem with the Lotem 400 that supplies plates for the 74 G, we can switch to the Lotem 800 II, so there are no press down times," said Mende.
In addition to the quality delivered, what clinched the decision in favour of the Rapida was the fact that the price of Toray's waterless plates was substantially reduced last year.
The higher cost of plates and inks compared to wet offset was outweighed by a lower waste rate and enhanced environmental performance.
According to Mende that is another reason why Gravuflow technology will take off.
Alexander Mende said he knows how his company can exploit new ideas to stay ahead of the field - by printing plastic film such as stickers (in a higher quality than screen printing) or lenticular film.
"At Drupa we saw a 74 Karat printing lenticular film with 3-D, animation and flip-flop effects enabled by Humaneyes' Litho 3D software.
Were keen to offer the same products with our Rapida 74 G.
This is something our competitors will be hard put to copy, so we can win a lot of new business," said Mende.
The Humaneyes software generates lenticular images in a matter of minutes from straight images captured with standard digital cameras.
The Rapida 74 G's low waste level of 10 sheets maximum makes it suitable for printing costly substrates like lenticular film.
Semi-automatic plate-changing and register correction options at the ergotronic console support the high degree of register precision necessary for lenticular printing said KBA.
For printing on plastic film KBA recommends Zeller+Gmelins Toracard TF inks plus infra-red dryers. Request a free brochure from KBA ...
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