Economical Printing With Hybrid Inks

With a two-day open house at longstanding KBA customer Press R3 in Almenno San Bartolomeo, the medium-format Rapida 105 press was officially unveiled on the Italian market.

With a two-day open house at longstanding KBA customer Press R3 in Almenno San Bartolomeo, the medium-format Rapida 105 press was officially unveiled on the Italian market.

Press R3's new six-colour press was demonstrated.

The machine is configured with a coater, double-length extended delivery and a hybrid equipment package.

Two hundred and fifty print visitors from all over Italy attended during the two-day event, when they saw print demonstrations using conventional and hybrid inks to illustrate what KBA described as the production and substrate flexibility of the press.

KBA-Italia managing director Joachim Nitschke said: "The great interest in this high-tech press in Italy is shown by the fact that 12 presses, in configurations between four and eight printing units and with the most varied equipment packages, will already be delivered to customers during the first quarter of this year.

For example Mondadori in Verona, Printer Trento and GAM in Salerno will all be receiving their new equipment.

He continued: "A second focus of attention at Press R3, alongside the new Rapida 105, was a five-colour Genius 52, offering high-quality waterless printing for the short-run colour sector in small format 36cm x 52cm.

Together with the new medium-format series and the successful large-format models Rapida 130 - 205, the Genius 52 gives us another iron in the fire to further boost our market shares in this country.

After all, it is especially attractive for those smaller printers for whom the purchase of a DI press is not currently a business option.

For Press R3's founder, Alessandro Rota, the start-up of the automated Rapida 105, with its claimed production output of 18,000 sheets per hour (sph) and a substrate range from 60gsm - 350gsm, is the crown on his life's work and a legacy for the coming generations of the family.

He said: "We offer companies that are not themselves equipped with our comprehensive and up-to-date level of technology the opportunity to use our potential and in this way to satisfy the demands of their customers.

After the premiere with the first Rapida 105 in 1998, we are naturally very pleased to be able to continue this pioneering role with the successor model.

Rota went on to say: "The new Rapida generation possesses not only a really modern operator interface but in fact significantly enhances technical features in almost every domain.

With the hybrid technology, KBA has optimised an economical process for in-line product finishing and has been spearheading developments for years.

As far as we were concerned, the investment in the new KBA Rapida 105 was in the end the logical consequence of our positive experience with the predecessor model.

Press R3 chose to include practically all the press's available options when it was configured because it was convinced that it was the best way to secure a competitive edge.

The shaftless feeder, fully automatic plate changing, optimised sheet guiding through to the delivery and also the colour measuring and control system Densitronic S gives the company the confidence that it can look forward to ultimate quality, performance, production reliability and ease of operation, it added.

"At the same time, we are expecting important competitive benefits from the combination of conventional and hybrid printing capabilities," commneted Rota.

Press R3 was founded in 1988.

Regular investment has established the family business as a partner for a demanding range of print products on the north Italian market.

Alongside numerous book publishers, the customer base today also includes leading cosmetics firms.

The company's partnership with KBA began in its early years, with the purchase of a two-colour Planeta Super Variant in 1994.

Even after 11 years of service, that press is still in first-class technical condition and remains in regular production said KBA.

It was Alessandro Rota's ambition and technology know-how that enabled Press R3 to grow so quickly.

One important milestone in its development was the installation of the first Rapida 105 in Italy in 1998.

Alessandro Rota commented: "Over its six years in operation, the five-colour press represented a giant leap forward and significantly improved our performance to the benefit of our customers.

With the KBA Rapida 105 of the latest generation, which went into production in Almenno San Bartolomeo last October, PressR3 continues to pursue its expansion.

New premises opened in June 2004, when the company started its drive to gain a foothold in lucrative niche markets - such as printing with hybrid inks.

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