10-Unit Perfector Is Firm's First KBA Machine

Burlington Press, a company with nearly a century of printing and publishing history, will enter its 99th year armed with the latest KBA long perfector sheetfed press as its lead pressroom machine.

Burlington Press, a company with nearly a century of printing and publishing history, will enter its 99th year armed with the latest KBA long perfector sheetfed press as its lead pressroom machine.

Installed at its factory uniquely in Foxton, Cambridgeshire (UK) the press, a Rapida 105 10-unit press, includes a Densitronic S colour management system, Logotronic Professional workflow, Baldwin roller and blanket washing and Technotrans combi cooling.

Burlington Press, which has its roots in the former University Tutorial Press, is led by its present management of Andrew Tooke, Jack Lindop and Richard Tooke who purchased the company in 2000.

The company employs a core workforce of 71 on its 60,000 square foot Foxton site and has a turnover in excess of GPB6.5 million.

The existing pressroom currently houses three perfecting B1 presses - an eight-colour MAN Roland and two Heidelbergs.

The company's decision was to move from eight colours to 10 to accommodate corporate colours and coats and to add to its perfecting armoury.

A pressroom team led by pressroom manager Kevin Saunders began the search for the new press looking at the long perfectors available with visits to Germany and throughout the UK.

The search was narrowed to Heidelberg and KBA.

Andrew Tooke said: "We chose the KBA for its better and newer technology, for its production speed and flexibility and because it is more operator friendly.

Our target is to improve productivity, reduce downtime and give better press accountability in a pressroom running 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week.

It will also allow us to perfect a wider range of substrates, thus opening up new market opportunities." The new Rapida arrived at Foxton in October and will soon be operational.

Burlington Press attracts work from a customer base across the south of England, East Anglia and the Midlands, which includes magazines, report and accounts, security and financial work, fine art print and general commercial work.

The pressroom is backed by a finishing department offering thread sewing, perfect binding, multi-hole drilling, wiro-binding, shrink wrapping and personalised despatch.

Burlington also has a dedicated mailing and fulfilment department for collation, insertion and mail sorting, as well as its own fleet of dedicated vehicles.

The new generation KBA Rapida 105, launched at Drupa 2004 is KBA's top selling sheetfed press worldwide and is earning a rapidly increasing installation base in the UK, said the company.

The Rapida 105 is claimed to offer print quality and substrate flexibility with a maximum rated output of 18,000 sheets per hour (sph) in straight production and 15,000sph perfecting.

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