KBA Commander Press Handles Newspaper Baptism

Just 12 months after construction began on Rossel Printing's new plant, two of a total of three KBA Commander 6/2 press sections began production of Belgian national daily newspaper Le Soir.

Just 12 months after construction began on Rossel Printing's new plant, two of a total of three KBA Commander 6/2 press sections began production of Belgian national daily newspaper Le Soir.

The new plant was built on a greenfield site at the Aux Portes de l'Europe industrial park north Brussels (Belgium) For Le Soir, the inauguration of the six-by-two press marked a switch from Nordic to the more reader-friendly Berliner format.

Once the third section is up and running the new press line will produce over 400,000 copies per night along with a weekly output of three million-plus other titles printed during the day.

Jacques Valembois, technical director of Belgian media group Rossel, commetned: "Twelve months is a pretty tight time-frame for building a new printing plant and commissioning a high-performance press like the Commander.

We were impressed by the competence and dependability KBA displayed in meeting every deadline." Alongside standard features like continuous lock-up slots, minigaps, pneumatic locks for the printing and blanket plates and automatic roller locks, the new nine-cylinder satellite press at Rossel features high-speed calibration during commissioning, digitally controlled inking units for ink metering and the first seven-segment KBA KF7 heavy-duty jaw folder.

Lothar Hohmann, KBA's deputy head of newspaper presses, said: "Our new KF7 folder with a two-segment cut-off cylinder and seven-segment cylinder system passed its baptism by fire with flying colours.

It not only handles the enormous output with ease but - even better - it has plenty of reserve capacity." Each of the three automated modular KF7 folders can process two separate ribbons for up to 72 pages, giving a maximum output of 90,000 144-page broadsheet copies per hour, said KBA.

Since the number of pages in the two ribbons does not have to be the same, signature thickness can be varied.

The press is embedded in an automated reel logistics system with automatic reel preparation and loading with KBA Patras A at the nine KBA Pastomat RC reelstands, each of which can simultaneously handle reels 630mm to 1,920mm (24.75" - 75.5") wide and 1,500mm (59") or 1,270mm (50") in diameter.

The ability to run 2/6, 3/6, 4/6, 5/6 and full-width webs also affords greater flexibility in signature layout and pagination, said the company.

Switching from the 1,270mm (50") to the 1,500mm (59") diameter has cut paper reels by one third, with a reduction in associated labour and white waste.

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