Product category:
Labelling and Packaging (including Cans, Cartons, Labels, Flexible Packaging, Sleeves, etc.)
News Release from: KBA | Subject: Rapida 142
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 02 June 2005
World's Longest Sheetfed Press At
Australian Firm
What has been claimed to be the world's most highly specified and longest sheetfed printing press has just been installed at Australian packaging printer Anzpac Services.
What has been claimed to be the world's most highly specified and longest sheetfed printing press has just been installed at Australian packaging printer Anzpac Services The press is a KBA Rapida 142, size 6 (55") which has eight printing units, a perfecting unit, two coating units, three drying units, a triple extended delivery drying unit and automated paper feed and delivery logistics
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 28 Apr 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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KBA - World's Longest Sheetfed Press Down Under
KBA has booked an order from Anzpac Services (Australia) Pty Ltd, Sydney (Australia) for a 12,000 sheets per hour (sph) size 6 (55") Rapida 142 press, comprising eight units.
Chinese Toy Packer Orders KBA Rapida From Drupa
Hong Kong toy-packaging specialist Morning Sun Offset Printing placed an order at Drupa yesterday for a new-generation Rapida 142.
Total length of the press is more than 40 metres.
The general manager of Anzpac Services, Geoff Boshell, said: "When we decided to invest in a new press we did not want to play catch-up with everyone else, we wanted to go as far as technology would take us, to set the new standard." The company is a stand-alone business unit of British American Tabacco (BAT) and is one of the top three Australian packaging printers.
It produces work for BAT's four Australasian regions - Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guineau and the South Pacific and it is also printing for a growing number of non-group customers, including McDonalds, Colgate and Mars, with the outside work now accounting for 35 per cent of throughput.
Further reading
Coater Press Handles Heavyweight Solid Board
Dutch board and carton printer Kappa GSF in Oude Pekela (Groningen), part of the Eindhoven-based Kappa Packaging Group, has installed a size six (56") KBA Rapida 142 six-colour coater press.
New Packaging Line Includes High Gloss Press
Rob Leunis and Chapmann Group (RLC) took a new packaging line in to service at Colorpack in Berlin.
Giant Carton Plant Boosts Capacity With New Rapida
Leopold Verpackungen in Ludwigsburg produces 53,000 tonnes of solid-board and carton packaging every year - at a rate of 250 tonnes of board each day.
About 20 per cent of its work is exported and it is one of only two gravure and litho packaging plants in Australia, and has 180 staff producing packaging 24 hours-a-day.
Goeff Boshell said: "We decided to invest in a new press when our capacity on our existing machine was full and we could see the need our customers had for more work and for quicker turn-around times.
Our existing machine in terms of productivity has been superceded by the modern machines.
We want to grow our business so we wanted to build on what we have achieved and take it to a new level." Explaining why such a large machine was specified, Boshell added: "We knew with a new press that we had the opportunity for something special and we didn't just want a typical six-colour press with coater.
We wanted to lift the benchmark as high as it could go and wanted UV, more colours and perfecting, not just because we could have them but to be able to offer the market new benefits and new possibilities." Anzpac went through a careful analysis of the market when choosing the manufacturer of its new press, said KBA.
Boshell said: "Our choice came down to one of two presses, however the KBA press was more suited to our requirements, it offered perfecting for instance and we found it to be very user-friendly for the operators.
The level of automation is remarkable, we have automated plate changing, automated ink and dampener wash-up, then small aspects such as the hickey pickers that just suited us.
The KBA approach of having high levels of press automation fitted with our desire to have our press operators essentially acting as quality control managers at the delivery end of the press, rather than manually operating the press.
That enables the highest levels of quality and we can maximise our skills.
That was all in the concept of the Rapida 142.
Minimising make-ready is a key aspect and we aim to have the KBA making ready in 25 per cent of the time of the existing machine." The Rapida 142 is joined by new die cutting and gluing equipment and the company's first computer to plate system, which will give Anzpac one of the most modern and productive packaging plants in the world.
It is the latest part of a Australian $30 million investment programme that the company initiated two years ago and for the first time every aspect of production will take place in-house, said KBA.
Geoff Boshell commented: "Until now we have never been able to aggressively market our sheetfed business because of capacity constraints.
Now however we have the firepower to go to market with a very attractive proposition.
The press has only been running for a short time but so far we are delighted with it and I'm sure it will help us all to grow our businesses." Anzpac was established in 1900, as a family owned company, Deaton and Spencer and it experienced rapid growth during the 1960s and 1970s as a supplier of cigarette cartons to Rothmans and was then bought by the customer in 1986.
A greenfield site was established in 1992 and with it came new gravure presses and a 50" sheetfed litho press.
In 1999 the merger of Rothmans and BAT resulted in Anzpac becoming the regional printing and packaging arm of BAT Australasia. Request a free brochure from KBA ...
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