Focus on innovative services, finishing and product refinement
By: Martin Dänhardt
On 13th October, Rapida users from Poland traveled to the Radebeul factory of KBA-Sheet-fed for the annual visit of the VSOP Club (Very Smart Offset Printers). The agenda of this year’s meet, which brought together printers and press-room supervisors from a broad spectrum of Polish print companies, placed a special focus on the extended range of services offered by the press manufacturer. Looking beyond classic services geared to increased productivity, higher availability and further improved print quality, the discussions concentrated above all on workflow solutions and data-driven business models based on performance analyses, as well as proactive and predictive services for process optimization. A second important topic area concerned the innovations which KBA unveiled at Drupa 2016.
In this connection, Dirk Winkler, head of print technology at KBA-Sheet-fed, presented a Rapida 105 PRO with twin coaters and inline cold foil module printing and finishing a variety of high-quality folding cartons, world maps and calendar images. The finished folding cartons were then passed straight on to a KBA Rapida RDC 106 rotary die-cutter for cutting, creasing and – as a premiere – inline waste stripping. And all that with the shortest possible make ready times and practically twice the throughput of a conventional flat-bed die-cutter.
A second print demonstration turned attention to the Rapida 75 PRO, where the chosen jobs involved LED-UV production on uncoated papers and high-quality gloss finishing on coated art paper. The new half-format press was converted in next to no time for each new job.
A tour of the factory assembly center was a further highlight of the visit, not least because a number of very long presses were currently being tested ready for delivery to their respective customers. They included a Rapida 145 with 14 printing and finishing units, as well as several 10- and 12-color perfector presses. Particular interest was naturally attracted by the two large-format Rapidas for Polish customers. As every year, the intensive technical agenda was combined with a more relaxing tourist excursion and culinary delights.
