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Product category: Printing Presses and Machinery (New and Used, Service and Repair)
News Release from: KBA | Subject: Cortina
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial Team on 10 June 2005

First 48pp Cortina Waterless Press Users
Goes Live

Dutch printer Rodi Rotatiedruk BV in Broek op Langedijk, near Amsterdam, is the first to sign up for a 48pp version of KBA's waterless, keyless Cortina press.

Dutch printer Rodi Rotatiedruk BV in Broek op Langedijk, near Amsterdam, is the first to sign up for a 48pp version of KBA's waterless, keyless Cortina press The company's decision followed the conclusion of a two-year test phase on a beta version of the Cortina in Germany and as a result of opting for a process that is claimed to be totally new to newspaper production

At an open house on June 7 and 8 Rodi celebrated the baptism of waterless coldset offset in the presence of more than 200 representatives from European newspapers and the consumables industry.

The event was opened by Dick Ranzijn, head of the Rodi Media publishing house and managing director of Rodi Rotatiedruk, with Walter Schumacher, KBA's executive vice president for web press sales.

At present Rodi Media publishes eight free local and nine free Sunday titles with a total weekly circulation of 750,000 copies.

On top of this its contract printing brings the weekly output on the Cortina up to 1.8 million copies, almost all with a high colour content.

Print runs vary from 6,000 to over 150,000 copies, with 50 per cent between 10,000 and 50,000 and 39 per cent between 50,000 and 100,000 copies.

Since the press prints up to nine jobs a day, fast make-readies are a must.

Rodi opted for semi-automatic plate changing but one tower has since been retrofitted with automatic systems so as to cut changes to less than two minutes for the 32 double-spread plates that Rodi prefers to use for production.

Semi-automatic plate changes on the other two towers, where the plates must be inserted in the pneumatic plate clamps, take two skilled press operators a little less than 15 minutes, so even that is much faster than on the previous press, said KBA.

The new two-across KBA Cortina, which came on stream in February, has a 578mm (22.75") cut-off on a typically Dutch cylinder circumference of 1,156mm (45.5").

Maximum web width is 1,680mm (66") and there is a maximum hourly output 35,000 48-page broadsheets or 96-page full-colour tabloids, which comprise most of the the titles.

The press is configured as a single-floor version with three four-high mini-towers, three reel-stands, a folder superstructure with two formers, length-cross perforation, cut-off register controls and a 2:3:3 KF 3 jaw folder.

It is integrated in a KBA Patras M manually operated reel-handling system.

The 24 keyless inking units feature automatic roller locks, automatic ink pumping and blanket washing.

Copies can be delivered either stitched or with a quarterfold.

Rodi recently placed an order for a second folder, which is scheduled to come on stream in September.

That will enable low-pagination copies to be produced in parallel, which in turn will allow the company to handle big jobs to tight deadlines.

The press is controlled from two consoles with on-line maintenance facility.

Rodi Rotatiedruk's pre-press department operates two Creo Trendsetter 70 C thermal CTP platesetters with 1,200 dots per inch (dpi) - 2,400dpi resolution and uses Creo's Staccato FM software.

It also runs Konings Marks-3zet developing machines and a Nela VCP 2002 plate-bending device complete with a video control and positioning system.

The Cortina consumes Toray's RL 7 waterless CTP plates supplied by Marks-3zet, which have a claimed service life of 100,000 cylinder rph and are adequate for Rodi's customary run lengths.

Efforts are being made to extend the service life so that runs of 150,000 copies or more can be printed without incurring additional costs from having to change plates.

Plate life is also materially influenced by the inks used, added KBA.

The waterless coldset inks are currently supplied by Huber Munchen's plant in Celle (Germany) and an Xsys (formerly BASF) plant in Doetinchem (Netherlands).

But according to KBA, Sun Chemical's new-formula Shark W water-washable inks are also suitable.

Fitting neatly in Rodi's new press room, where maximum headroom is just 6.2m (20 feet 5 inches), the Cortina demonstrated its prowess at the open house by printing a daily on standard newsprint followed by a 96-page full-colour tabloid, 'KBA Process', on 52gsm newsprint.

For 79 of the pages virtually the same pre-press data were used as for the original 80-page A4 'Process 2' magazine printed a few weeks earlier on coated stock by a Rapida sheetfed offset press.

Only the title page was changed to give it a more newspaper-like appearance.

To bring the number of pages up to the 96 possible in triple-web production a feature on Rodi Rotatiedruk was added along with ads by KBA's alliance partners in the Cortina project.

During the demonstration it was pointed out that the use of non-newspaper pre-press data would not be possible in wet coldset.

In waterless there is much less dot gain and the Cortina can print a screen as fine as 60 lines per centimetre (lpc) - 150 lines per inch (lpi), which is commercial standard, added KBA.

The time saving possible with Platetronic A automatic plate changers, compared to a manual change using a semi-automatic system, was demonstrated during make-ready for another job, which was from Rodi's afternoon schedule.

The automatic system took less than two minutes to change all 32 double-spread plates in one four-high tower, whereas the two press operators on the adjacent tower took 14 minutes, even with the aid of a semi-automatic pneumatic plate-clamping system.

Both print jobs were completed with a low level of start-up waste and the four-colour quality delivered was impressive, without week-long preparation, said the German press manufacturer.

According to Rodi, the quality the Cortina delivers has enabled the company to win more advertisement sales and contract work and expand its base of regular customers.

On the other hand the enhanced quality is making it harder to contract jobs out to other printers and since the Cortina came on stream the number of print enquiries had doubled and the proportion of four-colour print work has jumped from 10 per cent to 80 per cent.

Rodi project manager Martijn Boereboom explained that in the first few months following the Cortina's production start-up the focus was on training staff in this unfamiliar technology and on optimising the inks so that they would meet the high quality standards required for Rodi's numerous titles.

Because it was the first time KBA had engineered a waterless offset press for such a large format (the beta press in Offenburg was built for the Berliner format) a few modifications had to be made to the mechanics and software, to certain pre-press devices and to the blankets.

Now, virtually all the jobs that previously had to be contracted out are produced in-house on the Cortina.

Some titles have a high ink coverage that would either not be possible in conventional wet offset or would cause a lot of problems.

The company is already well on the way to achieving its objectives of boosting sales and the bottom line by cutting production costs, whilst delivering on quality.

At present, apart from the need to extend plate service life, there is still potential for reducing waste levels, make-ready times and manning, whilst increasing net output.

After four months, the company said that it stands wholeheartedly by its decision to take the KBA Cortina on board.

The favourable response of contract customers to the enhanced quality delivered has strengthened Rodi's conviction that it took the right route and it has big plans for the Cortina in the future.

Rodi believes that waterless offset offers a lot of potential for raising the profile of its in-house and contract titles in the fiercely competitive Dutch market.

When Dick Ranzijn started up in business publishing a free newspaper in the early 1970s, he was one of the first in the Netherlands to enter the market.

In 1978 he founded Rodi Media and in 1985 there followed the newspaper printing plant, complete with its own sales organisation for door-to-door distribution in the north of the country.

A few years later he expanded his activities with the launch of a Sunday freesheet.

In 1989, with a total weekly circulation of 250,000 copies, Ranzijn established a printing company - Rodi Rotatiedruk - with one single-width King Press.

Five years later print output topped the one million mark and the press was no longer able to cope, despite an extension.

In 1997 a second-hand one-across press with a maximum output of 80 tabloid pages, eight of them full colour, was bought from the USA.

In 2001 that press line was extended with two new printing units and an additional folder but even the extra capacity was soon insufficient to handle the company's production and colour requirements.

As a result a lot of work had to be contracted out, for example to the second prospective Cortina user in the Netherlands, Dijkman Offset in Diemen, also near Amsterdam, added KBA.

KBA marketing director Klaus Schmidt said that, to date, seven Cortina press lines, totalling 29 towers or 232 couples, have been sold to printers in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.

Expounding the many economic benefits that eliminating keys and water can deliver, Schmidt emphasised the fact that the Cortina is not just another newspaper press.

He said: "It is a totally new approach to high-quality coldset production.

The basic idea is to support more standardised, automated newspaper production.

Many of the Cortina's features, such as automatic plate changers and the ultra-compact tower, with its patent glide-apart Stepin system, could be used in a conventional press, since there is ample space.

We have not pursued that option because it could be interpreted by cynics and rivals as an admission of failure.

However, in common with initial users and many other innovative thinkers, we firmly believe in the benefits of waterless, keyless offset." KBA's Swiss Cortina project manager, Peter Benz, gave another view of the technology the press embodies and what the company believes are the advances that have been made in refining the process for high-speed waterless web offset.

He said that the alliances KBA has spearheaded with diverse consumables suppliers and testing institutes had given rise to a methodological continuity over the past five years that is rare in an industry where rivalries prevail.

Benz said that much of the knowledge gained about the properties of inks and blankets and the impact of temperature changes within the press, can be exploited to address issues that still remain unsolved in conventional wet offset.

The obscurities of the offset process will become more transparent and controllable only if chemists, printers and engineers work together more closely than in the past, he added. Request a free brochure from KBA ...

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