Product category:
Printing Presses and Machinery (New and Used, Service and Repair)
News Release from: KBA | Subject: Rapida 185
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 22 June 2005
France's First Superlarge Press Prints
Placards
French poster printing specialist Affiprint is home to the first superlarge KBA Rapida press in France - a Rapida 185 five-colour machine.
French poster printing specialist Affiprint is home to the first superlarge KBA Rapida press in France - a Rapida 185 five-colour machine Affiprint's new 5,500 square metre (60,000 square feet) production hall in Paris houses the press, which has a sheet size of 1300mm x 1850mm (51.25" x 72.75")
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 19 Jan 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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Superlarge Presses Capture More Than Poster Market
Since what German press manufacturer KBA described as its 'super large' Rapida 185 and Rapida 205 presses went on the market, the company believes there has been no stopping them.
Demand For Superlarge Machines Presses Capacity
The demand for the superlarge format KBA Rapida 185 and Rapida 205 press series is outstripping the company's boldest expectations, and assembly and print testing continue to run at full capacity.
The Rapida 185 prints placards for bus shelters at an average production speed of around 10,000 sheets per hour.
The press also prints 4 metres x 3 metres (13 feet x 10 feet) posters in six segments.
The president of Printinvest (which owns Affiprint), Patrice Sittaro, said: "I've never seen anything like it.
The potential is enormous.
This machine heralds the beginning of a whole new era.
This machine features fast, fully automated plate changers and lightning make-ready." Two additional Signtronic UV systems for CTP will also be installed soon - one at Affiprint, the other at La Lithotyp Group, a poster specialist based in Gemenos, near Marseilles, which Sittaro also heads.
La Lithotyp and Affiprint both have KBA presses in operation.
The three installed a few years ago at La Lithotyp are all size seven (63") Rapida 162s - one four-colour, one five-colour and one six-colour.
La Lithotyp employs 60 people, while Affiprint has a staff of 50.
Printinvest is one of the leading offset poster printers in France, with sales of 24.5m Euros in 2004.
Sittaro claimed: "Technologically, we are way ahead of the field.
I dare say you'd be hard put to find any other poster printer in France - and probably in the whole of Europe - that can match us on innovation.
We are moving to harmonise the two production workflows by kitting up with identical pre-press systems and KBA presses.
Both locations already work to the same production schedule." Although the two plants are roughly 1,000 kilometres (635 miles) apart, they are already networked via a fibre optic data highway in the form of a 2.4 Gigabit per second MPLS (multiprotocol label switching) system to accelerate job scheduling and handling.
The group pursues active alliances with its suppliers, such as KBA.
Lithotyp was brought to the table when the concept of the Rapida 185 was first mooted. Request a free brochure from KBA ...
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