Product category:
Direct Mail Printing and Services
News Release from: KBA | Subject: Rapida 162a five-colour coater press
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 18 July 2005
Printer Installs 5-Colour Rapida Press
With Client
A Rapida 162a five-colour coater press has gone live in a purpose-built extension at German display specialist Panther Display in Grossbeeren, in the outskirts of Berlin.
A Rapida 162a five-colour coater press has gone live in a purpose-built extension at German display specialist Panther Display in Grossbeeren, in the outskirts of Berlin But Panther Display has not ventured in to print production itself
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 9 Feb 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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The size 7 (63") 13,000 sheets per hour (sph) press is owned by, and the extension let to, Druckhaus Berlin Mitte, the company's print provider for the past 10 years.
"The chemistry was right, so we decided to adopt an approach commonly used by vehicle parts manufacturers but virtually unheard-of in the print media industry - that of installing production equipment at customer premises," explained Berlin Mitte managing director Herbert Preissler.
Panther Display will generate a sizeable proportion of the jobs printed on the Rapida 162a." The company's biggest press line to date, the Rapida 162a will go straight in to two-shift operation printing short-run magazines and books alongside displays.
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Automation is correspondingly high to minimise make-ready, encompassing plate changing, roller changing in the coater, video colour registration at the console and a Logotronic Professional management information system.
Logotronic networking means that the 25 kilometres (nearly 16 miles) separating company headquarters from the press are no cause for concern, as Preissler said: "We have a permanent internet link to enable JDF preset data to be transmitted from our pre-press department in Berlin to the press in Grossbeeren." Although there are plans to install CTP at the new location, at present all the plates are sent from Berlin.
Thanks to the network, remote production works well, said KBA and the press crew can download virtually all the automatic preset parameters and also access the job queue via digital job tickets and a schedule linked direct to the Hiflex production planning software in Berlin.
At the same time, management at Berlin Mitte can monitor all the press functions, production times and counter states, for instance, - necessary for job tracking and statistical cost accounting.
A board-printing option enables the Rapida 162a to handle stock ranging from 40gsm (11lb bond) paper to 1.2mm (48pt) board.
A double-sheet detector, remote in-feed cocking and sheet-travel control also allow non-specification cartons or microflute to be processed.
A non-stop facility at the feeder and a height-adjustable non-stop roller in the delivery are virtually standard on presses of this size and the 162a also features a Densitronic S colour measurement and control system, said KBA.
Sheets for books and magazines can be slit prior to delivery, so despite the double format the book binding department will continue to receive two pallets of standard 3B sheets.
The Berlin plant will never set eyes on those products.
The press room there houses three 3B presses, one size six (56") press and some small-format presses from various German manufacturers.
Direct mail and customer magazines are the main products printed, complete with collation, mechanical personalisation and labelling, and sample insertion or gluing - a service that makes Druckhaus Berlin Mitte, with its 100 staff, the provider of choice for clients, commented KBA.
Whilst other companies view the EU's expansion in to central and eastern Europe as an existential threat, Preissler sees it as a great opportunity.
A Berlin subsidiary, Europa-Dialog, already prints jobs for customers in Poland and other countries to the east.
Panther Display and Berlin Mitte welcomed more than 100 guests to the inauguration of the Rapida 162a.
The occasion also marked a management change at Panther Display, with outgoing managing director Lutz Hellemann passing the baton to his successor, Lothar Viel.
For Hellermann, like Preissler, acquiring an in-house printing capability represents a landmark event in the company's evolution, made possible at the initiative of Druckhaus Berlin Mitte. Request a free brochure from KBA ...
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