KBA press helps make print firm more competitive

ODR in Rostock, Germany, bought a five-colour Rapida 105 press from KBA and it has already achieved well over five million impressions.

The press was installed in time to fulfil heavy demand during ODR's seasonal peak in December.

It also proved to be a strong spring for ODR.

Besides the periodicals and the brochures, which the tourist associations needed for the season's travel fairs, a considerable volume of orders was handled for the National Horticultural Show in Schwerin.

The work included, for example, 300,000 regional maps and a total of 1.5 million flyers for the nine themed gardens.

Further orders were received from the German Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund.

Internet business is also expanding at ODR.

Posters with photographs from around the Baltic region are proving popular with tourism providers and consumers.

ODR has also developed fixed-price offers for the printing of flyers and postcards.

In this way, a constant flow of work is maintained to keep capacity utilisation stable between the regularly scheduled jobs.

ODR's managing director, Sabine Gratias, said that the company's product portfolio has traditionally included a series of periodicals.

Their typical run lengths vary between 8,000 and almost 50,000 copies.

One 12-page brochure is produced with a weekly circulation of 30,000 copies.

ODR receives the data for the first four pages by 2.00pm every Monday, and the rest follows by 7.00pm.

The first 12,000 saddle-stitched brochures leave the premises by 2.00am the same night, and Tuesday morning 6.00am is the final deadline for the whole order.

For the configuration of the Rapida 105, particular importance was attached to details serving quality control and the on-line communication of pre-press data for press pre-setting.

KBA's Densitronic ink density control is vital for ODR, said KBA, whose quality management is certified to DIN/ISO 9002, even if it is not the colour bars, but the rest of the sheet which is sold.

Logotronic networking is an equally important feature.

In the post-press department at ODR, a new Perfecta guillotine, three folding machines and a gatherer-stitcher permit all products to be finished in-house.

Only thread-stitching and perfect binding have to be outsourced for book binding.

A platesetter from Basysprint completes the line-up in the pre-press area.

Sabine Gratias commented: 'We are now streamlined and flexible, we have shed unnecessary ballast, and can thus react quickly in every situation.

Following the installation of the Rapida 105, ODR found that blankets, for example, did not last as long as usual.

The reason emerged that a change in the composition of the washing cloth, make it harder than before.

There have also been fluctuations in the inks, which later proved to be the result of a new production location for ODR's supplier.

ODR is also reporting that the proportion of filler in paper is increasing constantly, while that of the fibres is becoming smaller.

KBA said that all the equipment base at ODR is now paid for, and apart from the monthly instalments for the press, the company has no liabilities.

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