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Printing Presses and Machinery (New and Used, Service and Repair)
News Release from: KBA | Subject: Cortina press
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 13 June 2007
Most Famous French Paper Opts For
Waterless Print
Possibly France's most famous newspaper, Le Figaro, is to make the move to waterless production when it commissions the biggest KBA Cortina press installation to date.
The Cortina is a six-wide version comprising two press lines with five towers apiece The new press, which will have a maximum capacity of two x 60 full-colour broadsheet or four x 60 full-colour tabloid pages in straight production, will go live at the end of 2008 at a new printing plant near Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 13 Feb 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Belgian's Take To Waterless For Newspapers
Waterless newspaper offset has now spread to Belgium, where media player De Persgroep in Asse, near Brussels, has just become the third print enterprise to sign up for a KBA Cortina after Rodi Rotatie
Ifra To See Latest Newspaper Waterless Presses
KBA is majoring on the developments it has made with its Cortina waterless newspaper press at the Ifra Expo in Amsterdam.
KBA won the contract following what the company described as an intensive screening of all the newspaper technology on the market.
A single-width KBA Continent installed at the Figaro group's existing plant in 2002 is primarily used to print the International Herald Tribune and Paris-Turf titles.
The new Cortina installation will be fed by 10 Pastomat RC reelstands engineered for a maximum reel diameter of 1,500mm (59").
Further reading
German Newspaper House Goes With Waterless Flow
The publisher of gazettes and newsletters, Nussbaum Medien in Weil der Stadt, is making the transition to waterless offset with the purchase of a KBA Cortina press.
KBA - The Case For Waterless Newspaper Production
The recent economic recession has severely affected advertising spend and thus on newspaper revenues.
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.
The 10 four-high towers will incorporate 10 double turner bars, two folder superstructures with four formers apiece and two KF 5 double jaw folders with section stitchers.
Auxiliaries will include Patras A reel-handling, an ink pumping system and blanket and roller wash-ups, all fully automated.
The level of automation will extend throughout the press line, reducing the labour input required for operation and maintenance, added KBA.
The company's Platetronic automatic plate changers, Rollertronic automatically adjustable roller locks and Niptronic remote-controlled bearing units are further examples of the Cortina's technology.
The six-wide press will have a maximum rated output of 80,000 copies per hour, a 470mm (18.5-inch) cut-off on a 940mm (37-inch) cylinder circumference and a maximum web width of 1,890mm (74.5").
It will have KBA consoles featuring EAE's print production scheduling and press pre-setting software.
The Cortina 6/2 will have an hourly output of 160,000 full-colour copies, each with up to 60 broadsheet pages.
Provision has been made for the addition of heatset dryers, reelstands, printing towers and ribbon stitchers at a later date.
A third press line has been included in the building plans for the new printing plant.
Alongside the high-circulation Le Figaro and its associated supplements (Le Figaro Rconomie, Reussir and Le Figaro Litteraire), the Cortina 6/2 will be used to print a range of weekly magazine titles including Carrieres and Emplois and Figaroscope.
Le Figaro production manager, Andre Menet, said: "The new triple-wide version of this compact waterless press is a compelling concept.
It unites the Cortina-specific benefits of ultra-short make-readies, easy handling, minimum start-up waste, precise registration and consistently high quality in full-colour production with the advantages of six-wide presses.
It also provides reduced capital investment costs, fewer components, a shorter press length and much simpler web leads for titles with three or four signatures." He continued: "It also provides the ability to add heatset dryers for printing semi-commercials with the same type of ink, which gives us enormous flexibility in diversifying further at a later date.
Not only that, it means we can switch between coldset and heatset in a minimum of time.
The absence of dampening units virtually eliminates fan-out and means that web stretch will no longer be an issue if we take up the option of hybrid coldset and heatset operation with a retrofit dryer." Menet explained that those benefits make the Cortina a flexible production tool, which will enable Le Figaro to be printed along with its various supplements.
It will also provide additional capacity for handling contract work, so the company will be prepared to handle whatever changes the media market may bring.
Speaking at the exchange of contracts, KBA executive vice-president for web press sales, Christoph Muller, said: "Le Figaro's decision to invest in the most advanced press technology currently on the market is a renewed expression of faith in KBA's competence in the year we celebrate our 190 years of existence.
It is a major milestone in the acceptance of waterless print production by the global newspaper market." Le Figaro, which was founded in 1825, is owned by French aviation group Dassault. Request a free brochure from KBA ...
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