Packaging: Marshall & Bruce Printing Company, one of the oldest printers in the Nashville, Tenn. region, installed a KBA Rapida 105 41" seven-color sheetfed press with a coater and extended delivery and a perfector between the first and second printing unit in the firm's 58,000 sq ft facility in November 2003. The press is giving the company faster run speeds, higher quality, and more automation plus the CIP4 technology allows them to connect to their CTP systems to the pressroom and significantly reduce makeready times and waste. The KBA Rapida 105 41" press is also allowing Marshall & Bruce to print point-of-purchase jobs on fluted board and other substrates. Ambassador Packaging, a York, S.C. packaging printer, has installed a new KBA Rapida 142 56" six-color fully-automated sheetfed press in September 2003.  The KBA Rapida 142 press, proclaims Ambassador's president, is the very best large format sheetfed press available. Ambassador's customers require faster turnaround and high quality. The customers are sending  jobs to Ambassador with more colors and more intricate designs.  Since the press was installed, its fully-automated features are allowing Ambassador to produce faster makereadies. The printer especially likes the KBA Densitronic S closed loop densitometry/spectrophotometry system, in which they can scan a job and maintain the same critical color throughout the press run. Midlands Packaging Corporation, Lincoln, Nebraska, installed a KBA Rapida 105 41" six-color sheetfed press with inline hybrid UV coating in January 2004 with production to begin in mid-February 2004. A number of factors lead to the final decision of choosing a KBA Rapida 105, among them were: its high levels of automation, run speed, substrate versatility, as well as the ability to run hybrid UV inks and coatings. Midlands' customers are demanding lower prices, shorter lead times, and their expectation of color consistency and overall quality has risen dramatically. Curtis Packaging Corporation, Sandy Hook, Conn. has installed a new KBA Rapida 130 51" eight-color sheetfed press with inline aqueous and hybrid UV coating in November 2003 with production beginning in early 2004.  The new Rapida 130 is the first of its kind in North America. The all UV press is configured specifically to produce dispersion-coated packaging with eight-color printing and UV coating in a single pass. The press has the ability to apply metallic printing effects, such as gold, silver, bronze, copper, or platinum. Curtis now has two 51" all inline UV and aqueous coating KBA presses in seven and eight colors. Both presses are available to be fingerprinted and plated for all printing projects. Commercial: Print Craft Inc., a leading St. Paul, Minnesota commercial sheetfed printer, has installed a KBA Rapida 105 41" eight-color sheetfed perfector press. The press, which has a perfector between the fourth and fifth unit and inline coating, was installed in March 2004. The new KBA Rapida sheetfed offset press is Print Craft's second KBA press. The firm also utilizes a KBA 74 Karat digital offset press in its pressroom, along with three additional 40" sheetfed presses and four half-size sheetfed presses. Ed Garvey & Company installed a Rapida 162 64-inch six-color sheetfed press equipped with UV and hybrid ink capabilities at in its Niles, Ill. facility in March 2004. Ed Garvey & Company is a commercial printer that produces corporate, direct mail, and business forms on both sheetfed and web presses. The firm wanted to move beyond its 40-inch, eight-page work into large format point-of-purchase, point-of-sale, signage for retail stores, and packaging. The company wanted to tap into its current clientele and sell them more printing while aggressively attacking new clients and new markets with the press. The company found that there were few 64-inch presses in the Chicago area. The firm has also found that the UV and hybrid ink capabilities of the press allow them to help their customers differentiate themselves from their competition by printing eye-catching, dramatic, creative pieces on a variety of substrates including foils and plastics. 1-800-Postcards, a publication and commercial printer located in New York City has installed a KBA Rapida 105 41" eight-color perfector sheetfed offset press with coater in May 2004 with an order to install a KBA 74 Karat digital offset press later this year.  The firm feels that the KBA presses give them the highest quality and productivity to benefit their customers. The KBA Rapida 105 four-over-four perfector suits all three areas of the print market served by 1-800-Postcards: magazine publishing, the retail segment, and print brokers. When the firm installs the 74 Karat, it will have a high-quality, short-run, offset digital solution for work that falls between 500 to 2,000 sheets. The New York City-based printer is so impressed with its KBA Rapida 105 that they are contemplating buying another KBA press. Digital: Zooom Printing, a five-employee shop located in the historic Shockoe Bottom area of Richmond, Va. has installed a 74 Karat digital offset press with coater in December 2003 and started to produce live jobs in Feb. 2004. In the three years that Zooom was established, its owners felt that they needed a new press to expand their business. The 74 Karat digital offset press changed what they can produce. Zooom wanted to be able to coat their jobs; they wanted to be able to reduce their make-ready times dramatically; they wanted a bigger sheet size; and they wanted a press that would maintain their high-quality output. The KBA 74 Karat digital offset press provides these capabilities. Since the Karat was installed, Zooom has been so busy that they haven't been able to breathe. Please find a downloadable version of this PR including photos at: http://www.kba-print.de/vt/headlines/sheetfed3/2004-07-30-00.html